My Missions Trip, part three

Mission to the Missions

 

 

My third stop, and my final stop, was Mission San Juan. I had originally planned to head down to Mission Espada afterwards, but I was worried about getting back to my car by five o'clock, and decided to skip the last mission for this trip. The church at Mission Espada is currently closed and under renovations, so I decided that checking out the grounds could wait.

 

Mission San Juan is much smaller than the previous two missions.

 

 

 

This beautiful cactus and cross centerpiece greets visitors at the entrance to the grounds. The Mission itself is mostly wide open space, a handful of buildings spread along the edges of a rectangular field.

 

 

The church almost seems like something from a movie set, a building façade rather than an actual active church. But it is active, like the other missions. It's a small narrow building, but even so you can see the care that went into the architecture. 

 

Perhaps the most striking part of Mission San Juan to me was the unfinished church, directly opposite the active one. These ruins are of a church partially built and then abandoned. The grounds of the church in progress then became the graveyard of the Indian residents of the Mission. In respect of the dead, the grounds are off limits.

 

Mission San Juan was the quickest stop on my day out. Aside from walking the square and giving a moment of silence aside the unfinished church/graveyard, I didn't spend much time there. There are, however, nature trails looping the Mission. Due to my time concerns, I didn't explore them, but I fully encourage anyone checking out the area to investigate the trails and let me know how they were.

 



My Missions Trip, Part two

Mission to the Missions



 

The second mission on my route was Mission San Jose. It is the largest of the four missions that make up the state park, and home of the biggest visitors center, which includes a small museum and gift store. This mission has a bigger volunteer staff than Concepcion, and offers a 45 minute guided tour roughly every hour.

Unlike Mission Concepcion, the wall surrounding the compound is still very much in tact.
 

 

The residences for the natives were built into the wall, with a door every couple of feet. The rounded tower on the corner was a store room.

 

 

Only a few of the doors were actually open, allowing visitors a glimpse into what it might have looked like to someone living there, with even a little furnishing in one of the rooms. My favorite aspects of history have always been daily life, and it was very cool to walk through these rooms and imagine the people that lived there once upon a time.

 

 

Following the path across the open field inside the walls lead me to the church, a stunning building. I obviously wasn't the only one who thought so, since a girl was in the middle of her senior photos in front of the worn stone building.

 

 

There were some renovations taking place, so a couple of the rooms of the convento were closed off, but it had no effect on the experience, since it was still open enough to explore the whole area.

 

 

The convento, living quarters of the missionaries. The remains here are actually remnants of a major reconstruction undertaken in 1861 by Benedictine monks, which they never finished.

 

This was probably my favorite aspect of Mission San Jose. This was a room in the convento, closed off to the public and overgrown with greenery. It really gave me a Secret Garden kind of vibe, and I really wished that I could grab a picnic blanket and just relax in the middle of it for the rest of the day.

 

 

From the convento, I went to the church itself. It was another beautiful example of a church, bigger than Mission Concepcion, and much more colorful. But then, Mission San Jose doesn't get to boast about being the oldest unrestored stone church in America. Those original frescos are hard-pressed to retain all of their color.

 

 

Personally, though, I much preferred wandering the grounds outside than remaining indoors.

 

 

This stairway is pretty darn cool. It was carved from a single log, and put together without any nails or pegs. I only wish I'd been able to climb it, although it does look pretty steep and narrow, so I can understand keeping it off limits to tourists. 

 

This is the Rose Window, one of San Jose's big focus points. It's a beautiful example of baroque architecture, but no one knows why it's called the Rose Window, since the carvings are of pomegranates, and no one knows who actually carved it. It's a local source of legend and mystery, and it's absolutely gorgeous.

 

And that was my visit to Mission San Jose. I didn't stick around to see the award winning video shown in the visitor's center, as I wanted to make sure that I had time to get to the next two missions and back to Concepcion before 5 (I didn't want to be parked there past closing, I wasn't sure if they'd care or not that my car was still there...)

However, I did check out their museum. It's a little two room set up that explains the missions, the natives, and it's pretty cool. They have a copy of the manuals that missionaries were given to instruct them on how to run a mission. They have some cool examples of pottery and the products of daily life of the natives living in the missions, and the whole thing gives visitors an idea of what all the missions used to be like, and their purpose in the world of 1700s America.

 

 

 



My Missions Trip, part one

This weekend, I took a day trip out to the San Antonio missions with my camera, and the intention to tell a story. I've been trying out portrait photography, going to events like conventions, and now I'm trying my hand at a little travel writing/blogging.

Mission to the Missions

 

 

The San Antonio Missions exist along Mission Road, tied together by a purpose to teach local Indians the way of Spanish life and religion. From north to south, there is the Alamo (Mission San Antonio de Valero, first mission on the San Antonio river), Mission Concepcion, Mission San Jose, Mission San Juan, and Mission Espada. My focus was Concepcion down through Espada.

I parked at Mission Concepcion.

Mission Concepcion is the oldest unrestored stone church in America. Like the other three Missions on my route, it is still an active church, holding services every week. 11 am on Saturday, though, the place was fairly empty: only a few other cars in the parking lot.

There is little left of the limestone wall built around the Mission grounds, and a small testament to the on site quarry that supplied the stone, but the church still stands tall. 

The front doors to the church are kept closed, visitors directed around to the back entrance, behind the convento, the living quarters of the missionaries.

The church was my first stop.

The frescos are a big selling point of Concepcion, standing out boldly against the walls.

 The church itself, though, is more than just its frescos. It is a stunning building, awe inspiring.

       

 

 

From the church, I checked out the convento. This is where most of the educational material is, signs explaining the life of the missionaries and the Indians, and the purpose of the missions. They have even integrated (at all of the missions) cell phone tours, providing numbers you can dial that give you information about the location, and specific topics depending on the number. Concepcion has state park volunteers staffing the visitors center and doing scheduled tours, but only a couple (I saw two while I was there) so the cell phone tours really allow for a little customization of the experience.

 

The park across the street is little more than an open field until you get down to the riverbank, but it also has its piece of historical significance. Many know of the Alamo and the historic battle, a major loss to the Texan soldiers based there. However, before that battle was the Battle of Concepcion. In late October of 1835, a 30 minute battle took place at this mission, and the Texans secured a victory. In fact, there was only one lost Texan soldier, and one wounded, while there were over 50 Mexican casualties. Perhaps it wasn't a major historical battle of epic proportions, but it is something to remember, a successful occurrence of men fighting for their independence.

 

If you want to take the family, there is plenty of open space outside, and the park across the street. Take the park path all the way down to the river (a bit of a walk) and there's a playground. The visitor's center provides a junior ranger activity book too, encouraging kids to learn about the missions.

 

Mission Concepcion is a nice quick trip out, if you want to make it your only stop. I'd recommend early visits, as it doesn't provide a lot of shade outdoors, and it gets real hot.

If you want to visit all the missions, Concepcion is a good starting point. You can take either Mission Road down to San Jose, or you can head out to the river and take the riverwalk trail between missions.

However, if you're driving between the four of them and don't mind backtracking a little, I recommend that you start at Mission San Jose, the biggest of the missions and the location of the major visitors center, sporting a small museum and short film about the missions.

That being said, Concepcion was my favorite stop of the day.