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Meanwhile, in San Antonio.... Cannon from the battle Long Barracks Part of original irrigation system Spiked Cannons dug up at the Alamo North side of church Long Barracks. The shorter building in the back left is the Federal Building, roughly where Travis command post and the North Wall was. Theatre used in scenes in "Miss Congeniality" Section of Riverwalk man made for the Worlds Fair. St. Anthony
We covered 3 more missions today along with the Acequia. Remarkable history, architecture and all around good time. At Mission San Francisco de la Espada a San Antonio Officer pulled up and asked us if we had seen a couple of features that were kind of hidden from normal view and not on the normal tourist path. We then accompanied her on a ‘foot patrol’ that covered some history and other really neat stuff. She cleared her foot patrol with a ‘citizens assist’ and we resumed our normal tourist tour.
Good morning Oregon and everywhere else.. Mission Concepcion, Towers of America and ??????? on the agenda for the day.
Got the pics from the Nikon D7500 of the Missions and Acequia from yesterday off loaded...
These places were complete communities inside the walls of a "fort". The common theme for the "fortified" missions (and what seemed to draw a lot of the local area people inside the walls and their conversion to Christianity, was for protection from the repeated - periodic attacks by the Apache's.
SE entrance to the Mission. Gun ports shooting platforms at all of the entrances / exits. Tortilla and cooking kilns. At San Jose, this were numerous and located every few doors along the "Indian" and "Indigenous" quarters. Indian & Indigenous quarters Shrine to St. Francis of Assisi Special worker status quarters Friars quarters. One of the things I noticed, common to all of this architectures was the thickness of the walls...Strength - insulation or both? Fireplace and oven inside the Friars quarters. Ashes inside an oven in the Friar Quarters. This is inside the little slot above the fire place in the previous photo. Thick walls and a little more 'luxurious' quarters for the Friars. Doorway from Friars quarters out into the 'courtyard'. A North Wall entrance with gunports. This room had a little light so I was able get a picture through the gun port. The rooms themselves were not open to the public when we were there. Brought water into the Mill rom the San Antonio river. Soldier's quarters and firing positions. One of many wells at Mission San Jose. The other two missions we saw had zero or one well. They did have irrigation and water ditches or the San Antonio River adjacent to them though. This roundel is apparently solely for defense. Rifle ports higher up and what appears to be larger cannon ports about knee high. I'm guessing probably for one pounders. I was able to get the Nikon far enough through the cannon port to get pictures of inside the roundel. The room appears very much like other fortifications we've seen, including WWII fortifications. Notice how Acequia built specifically to get water to Mission Espada The Espada dam they built is up stream from here. Seems like we picked a rather ominous place to park the pickup.... Indian Quarters. Indian Quarters Rectoary, still in use today. "Main Entrance". For us back home in most of Oregon, this would barely qualify as a creek. However, in Texas this is a river....The San Antonio River. Main Entrance from the outside looking in. The Gate keeper lived in the entrance. His house door is on the right. This is the unfinished church. No one knows why it was never finished. It was partially complete - enough to put a thatch roof on and use. It eventually had a floor put in (white stones) but was then abandoned. After being abandoned, it was used as a burial ground for indigenous peoples. Archeological research discovered the graves. In 1969 the Catholic Church and descendants of the original Indians had a ceremony and re-interred the remains.
09-13-2020 | 11:49 PM
