Posted on by ToadMama

San Antonio: Mission Espada

One of the things Mike wanted to do while we were camping in San Antonio was visit the missions. San Antonio Missions National Historical Park is the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Texas.

The park actually has four distinct visitor areas — one for each mission — each about 2.5 miles apart. We started at Mission Espada, the one furthest away from downtown and worked our way north, finishing our tour at Mission Concepción, which is only about three miles south of downtown San Antonio. The other two are Mission San José and Mission San Juan.

The missions, which were all built in the 1700s as part of Spain’s attempt to expand its hold from Mexico into Texas, are mostly ruins and are in varying stages of preservation.

Missions overview.

 

The Alamo is owned by the State of Texas, so it’s not included in the National Historical Park.

Following are some of the images I captured as we explored the mission site.

Espada is the southernmost of the four missions.

 

Look at the wide variety of stones that were used.

 

It was a beautiful day for doing touristy things.

 

I’m a big fan of brick and stone walls.

 

Not sure what this is supposed to be, but it looked interesting.

 

Close-up of the bells from the side of the church.

 

Side of the church.

 

Front of the church.

 

Front of the church from a different angle.

 

Cool chair.

 

Mesquite Tree

 

Some sort of shrine.

The San Antonio Riverwalk Bike Trail (link to map), not to be confused with the Riverwalk area along the river and adjoining canal in downtown, is a walking/biking path that travels along the river south of the city to the various missions. The trail also passed close to our campground.

You can rent e-bikes for reasonable rates and ride all the way into downtown.

Mike rode his bike to Mission Espada the first full day we were in San Antonio. He wanted me to see this cool art installation that’s along the bike path, not far from Mission Espada.

e-bikes waiting to be rented.

The art installation, Árbol de la Vida: Memorias y Voces de la Tierra (click if you want to learn more), is a tree-like structure made of steel that is adorned with 700 clay sculptures. The individual pieces are physical reflections of stories crafted by the people of San Antonio, and are meant to reflect the ranching heritage themes and stories related to rich cultural traditions.

I didn’t get a shot of the full structure, which was pretty wide.

 

The variety of works was very interesting to see.

 

It was fun looking at the individual sculptures.

 

I spy a VW bus!

 

Some of the sculptures were more-colorful than others.

 

Love is one of the sculpture’s themes.

 

I really enjoyed the variety of the sculptures.

 

This was one of my favorites.

Next up… Mission San Juan.

2 Replies to “San Antonio: Mission Espada”

  1. I love the Mission Reach part of the Riverwalk the most. That what this section is called locally, and we have biked and walked it. We do need to get back down there to see the Arbol de Vida (tree of life) before we leave, as it was installed after our last visit.

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