Learn About the Park

What is a mission?

A mission is a community, a school, a workplace, a church, and now sacred burial grounds. 

The missions in San Antonio were establish by Catholic Franciscan priests and friars in the 1700s to serve several purposes.

• To convert the South Texas Indigenous Peoples to Christianity.

• To claim the land for colonial purposes. Texas became the territory of Spain, called the country of New Spain from 1519 until 1821.

• To convert the Indigenous peoples to the Spanish culture; including a new economy, European trades, agriculture, new diet, and more.

Who lived in these missions? 

• Franciscan Catholic Priests and Friars (only a few)
• Indigenous South Texas Families from various bands
• Spanish Solider's (a small number)

You can learn more here. 

 

Park Ranger points a stone grist mill structure during a guided program at Mission San José.

NPS Photo / Justine Hanrahan

Since 1916, the American people have entrusted the National Park Service with the care of their national parks. The National Park Service preserves, unimpaired, the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. In 1978, the Spanish colonial missions in San Antonio became a part of this family.

San Antonio Missions tell the stories of the people who came into the Spanish missions to live in the 1700s. Acculturating and converting the Indigenous population in order to become Spanish citizens reverberates today in the southwest United States. Our history is part of who we were, who we are, and who we will be. The National Park Service invites you to discover American history in all its diversity at San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.

 

NPS Photo / Justine Hanrahan