Mission San Francisco de la Espada, Catholic mission station in San Antonio, Texas, United States
Mission San Francisco de la Espada is a stone church completed in 1756, its rough tan and grey masonry patched with exposed brick. A narrow bell tower with one arched opening rises above two arched openings that each hold a bell, with a barred square window between them and a rounded stone-framed doorway with double wooden doors below. A friary was built in 1745.
The mission was established in 1690 and later relocated in 1731 to its present location along the San Antonio River. This move was part of a broader reorganization of Spanish colonial settlements in the region.
The name Espada means "sword" and refers to the mission's patron, Saint Francis, rather than to any weapon on the site. Descendants of the Coahuiltecan peoples once attached to the mission are today organised as the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, and Caddo descendants also trace ties here. The parish church remains in Catholic use.
The site is part of a national park and can be visited year-round with facilities scattered across the grounds. Expect uneven pathways and historic structures with limited modern amenities.
The Espada Acequia, a gravity-flow ditch with its stone aqueduct, still carries water to the mission and the farmland around it. Franciscan missionaries directed the building of seven ditches, dams and at least one aqueduct, a 15-mile (24 km) network irrigating about 3,500 acres. The water is still used by residents on the neighbouring lands.
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