Last updated: January 17, 2023
Place
Nuestra Señora de Rosario Mission
Photo/NPS
Quick Facts
Location:
Open by appointment only; four miles west of Goliad, Texas, just southwest of where US Highway 59 crosses the San Antonio River
Significance:
The mission site highlights Spanish difficulties convincing American Indian populations to adopt Christianity and a sedentary lifestyle--traits that many Europeans considered essential parts of "civilized" life.
Designation:
Certified Site; State Archeological Site; National Register of Historic Places
MANAGED BY:
This National Register property was established in November 1754 in an attempt to make peace with various Karankawan tribes, who did not get along with the other Indians at existing missions. Frustratingly for the Spaniards, the Indians arrived in the winter but departed in the spring (when food was more widely available outside the mission grounds). The site was virtually abandoned by 1781, reopened in 1789, abandoned again in 1804, and formally closed in 1807. In 1935 the mission, by then a ruin, was given to the Goliad State Park Commission; it was transferred to the state in 1971. It is currently managed as a state archeological monument.
Site Information
Location (four miles west of Goliad, Texas, just southwest of where US Highway 59 crosses the San Antonio River)
The mission's ruins sit atop a small rise in the San Antonio River valley. Although we cannot know for sure, archeologists think that the site consisted of a chapel, bell tower, sacristy, and residence.
Safety Considerations
Access
Closed to the public. This site is still being studied and can be visited only by appointment.
Exhibits
Historical marker along the road adjacent to the site.
More site information
El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail