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There are a lot of things you can do in San Antonio, Texas. Visiting the Alamo, the Riverwalk, the Missions, and more. During the years that my wife and spent in San Antonio we didn’t take advantage of the sites. A few years back I made it a goal that anytime in San Antonio that we try and hit up a historical site. Back in 2018, we were in town for my wife’s college reunion, and we had the chance to visit Mission Concepción and made the stop on the way out of town.
Mission Concepcion – History
Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña (also known as Mission Concepción) was originally established in 1711 as Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hainais in East Texas by the Domingo Ramón–St. Denis expedition. The mission was originally meant to be a base for converting the Hasinai to Catholicism and teaching them to be proper Spanish citizens. But for some reason the friars moved the mission to San Antonio. With it the name was changed to Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña. The mission was established in 1731 and most of the people living in the mission and supported by the mission were Pajalats and spoke a Coahuiltecan language.
Major Date in History
October 28th, 1835 – The Battle of Mission Concepción is considered by historian J.R. Edmondson as “the first major engagement of the Texas Revolution. Even though the battle only lasted 30 minutes, The Texian insurgents led by James Bowie and James Fannin with 90 Soldiers were able to defend against and win the battle against Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea and 275 soldiers. The Texians took cover in a horseshoe shaped gulley on the grounds of the mission. It is believed that with their good defensive position, longer firing range, and better ammunition helped them repel several attacks by the Mexican soldiers. Historians believe between 14 and 76 Mexican soldiers were killed while only one Texian Soldier was killed.
Mission Concepción is the oldest unrestored stone church in American. The mission consists of a sanctuary, nave, convento, and granary. Originally, the building was decorated with frescoes in the interior and exterior. Today, traces of the frescoes still exist on the weathered walls of the buildings. Some of the ceiling and walls of the convento were restored by experts in 1988. Then in 2010 the Archdiocese of San Antonio completed another restoration of the mission’s interior that exposed even more frescoes in the sanctuary and nave!
On April 15th, 1970, Mission Concepción was designated as National Historic Landmark and is part of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. In 2015, Mission Concepción, Mission San Antonio de Valero (The Alamo), Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo (San Jose Mission), Mission San Juan Capistrano (San Juan Mission), and Mission San Francisco de la Espada (Espada Mission) as a World Heritage Site.
Our Visit
We visited the mission on a Sunday morning as we were leaving town. We were unable to see the Sanctuary because services were being held. But we were able see the rest of the grounds and were impressed at how well the site is preserved. During our next visit to San Antonio, I plan to stop by the mission to check out the sanctuary and look at a few of the information signs that I missed or forgot what they said.
About the Images
Pictures were taken back in October 2018 during a weekend trip to San Antonio on a cloudy late morning. I had some issues getting the images to stay in focus and removing noise from the images. I was able to fix some of the issues in post. I used my Sony a6000. I then edited the images with Adobe Lightroom CC, Topaz Labs Denoise AI, AI, Topaz Labs Sharpen AI, , Aurora HDR, and Luminar AI. Please note not images needed Topaz Denoise AI and Topaz Sharpen AI.
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