Management

Our Mission

San Antonio National Historical Park protects, preserves, restores, and interprets four Spanish Colonial missions and their cultural landscape features, established along the upper San Antonio River. Through resource management, preservation, and public outreach, the National Park Service and its partners preserves this park for the education and enjoyment of this and future generations.

 

World Heritage Site Managment

San Antonio Missions is a unique chain of five closely spaced eighteenth century Spanish colonial mission complexes in San Antonio, Texas. Historically, they operated cooperatively and shared the same goals: to evangelize the area’s Indigenous population and to develop secular, self-supporting communities of faithful Catholics and the Spanish Crown who could help defend the northern frontier of Spain’s empire in North America. Located along a 12-mile (19.3 km) length of the San Antonio River, the missions, with their supporting irrigation systems, workshops, farms, and ranches, grew into self-sustaining communities that became the foundation of the modern city of San Antonio. Today, they are all designated historic sites, and four of the former mission churches continue to serve as
active Catholic parishes. The designated property consists of the five mission compounds, farm fields, irrigation systems, and a ranch site.

 

World Management Group and Partners Logos

• World Heritage Accomplishment Report 2020

• World Heritage Accomplishment Report 2021

• World Heritage Accomplishment Report 2022

• World Heritage Accomplishment Report 2023

• World Heritage Accomplishment Report 2024

• World Heritage Accomplishment Report 2025

The World Heritage Management Group (WHMG) for the San Antonio Missions consists of the landowners for the missions, including the National Park Service, the Archdiocese of San Antonio, San Antonio River Authority, the City of San Antonio, Bexar County, and the Texas General Land Office. In addition to the agencies represented on the WHMG, there are three primary partners dedicated to helping achieve World Heritage goals: Mission Heritage Partners, Visit San Antonio, and the San Antonio Conservation Society. The World Heritage Management Group is an oversight body whose purpose is to continue the high level of coordination and partnering that was established as the World Heritage nomination was under preparation. This committee will assist management of the relevant authorities in reaching the goals stated in the next page and ensure that these cultural resources are protected in perpetuity. In 2023, the group, led by the National Park Service completed its first “periodic reporting” to UNESCO since the site’s inscription in 2015. The report reaffirms the integrity of the site’s globally significant resources and the dedication of this group.

 

Follow the links below for more management-related information.

• Special Use Permits for events, photography, filming, and 1st amendment activities
• Park Statistics
• Laws & Policies