Mission San Antonio: Part 2

The second mission we visited in San Antonio was Mission San Francisco de la Espada (Mission Saint Francis of the Sword).

Map of the Mission San Francisco de la Espanda.

Espada had several locations in east Texas before it settled on the current location along the San Antonio River on March 5, 1731. This site became a merging of cultures that had to overcome language, values and faith differences. The Missionaries took the Coahuiltecan (kwa-weel-teken) people (a collective name for many small bands of Indians that lived in southern Texas adjacent to Mexico) and over a 50 year period taught these hunter and gatherers the principals of farming, ranching, architecture, blacksmithing, loom weaving, spinning and masonry. Espada was the only San Antonio mission that actually made bricks and tiles in the mission.

These are the ruins of the Indian quarters to the left of the Mission`s entrance.

The Coalhuiltecans were fighting famine, diseases, and enemy tribes on their own, so they chose the protection and plentiful food supply of the mission. These people embraced the Spanish life and Christianity. In 1794, Espanda started the transformation to a church-based community. Also, at this time the mission was impoverished, and there were only 15 families left that received land and shared equipment and supplies from the mission. In 1826, the Comanches raided the cornfields and killed the livestock, and that same year a kitchen fire destroyed most of the buildings. The chapel survived and people continued to make Espada their home. Today the church still serves as the heart of the community and mission descendants still worship there.

The above ruins were the granary in 1762 and was converted to a church in 1773-76. The existing church below was built in 1740 and the bell tower was added in the 1780s.

There is currently work being done to preserve the chapel.

Daily training and tasks were accomplished to the timing of the missions bells in the tower.

The Mission`s Acequia System was essential for the success of the survival of the missions crops. Because of the sparse rainfall in the San Antonio region there had to be a irrigation system put into place to make farming successful. The missionaries and natives created a seven gravity flow ditch system called acequias. Five dams and several aqueducts along the San Antonio River supplied a constant flow of river water into the system. The 15 mile system irrigated about 3500 acres of land.

The water moved through this aqueduct by gravity.

The acesquia system in Espanda is the best preserved, and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States. The aqueduct was completed in 1745 and still diverts river water via the Espanda Aqueduct, using gravity and floodgates, to fields for irrigation, bathing and washing for farms today.

This is a picture of the water flowing over the canal bridge pictured below. There was also a creek running under the canal bridge.

This was such a successful system, and is in great shape for being over 250 years old.

Stay tuned for Mission San Antonio part 3. Are you learning anything?