Popular San Antonio Landmarks And Monuments
San Antonio is home to a lot of monuments and historical buildings. Apart from the Alamo and the San Antonio RiverWalk, many historic buildings and structures bear mention in San Antonio. In this article, we will do a brief overview of these historical landmarks and monuments.
Monuments in San Antonio
The Alamo
This is the most famous historical building in the city of San Antonio. Also known as the Alamo Mission, this historic structure was built by the Roman Catholics in the 18th Century and served as a fortress and a mission house for Spanish missionaries.
This structure is why San Antonio is today known as the Alamo City. It is located in the very center of the city and attracts an average of 2.5 million visitors every year. The building is a site of many historical events, such as the Battle of the Alamo and the Spanish Colonization.
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
This is another San Antonio monument that stands out apart from the Alamo. However, this national historical park is also a missions estate, containing several mission houses such as Mission Concepcion, Mission San Juan, Mission San Jose, and Mission Espada. There is also a Mission trail that connects all of these mission houses. The trail and its connection to the four houses make up the national historical park, a registered UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Each mission house that makes up this San Antonio monument has a different individual history. For instance, the Mission Concepcion is the location of the Battle of Concepcion that occurred in 1835, while Mission San Jose is the biggest of the mission houses and is popular for its ornate windows. On the other hand, the purpose of Mission Espada was to convert Native Americans to Christianity.
San Fernando Cathedral
As much as the United States is a secular state, it has a rich religious or spiritual history, and this San Antonio monument is one of them. The official name of this monument is Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria y Guadalupe. The building is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church in San Antonio. The church’s construction started in 1738 and took about 15 years to complete. Apart from being the oldest church in San Antonio, this monument is one of the sacred San Antonio headstones as it is the resting place of Alamo Heroes. The church is also the symbol of the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
Natural Bridge Caverns
Away from sacred San Antonio headstones and religious San Antonio monuments, the natural bridge cavern is another popular monument in San Antonio. The name of this site came from its natural limestone bridge which looks like a slab across the cavern’s entrance. Tourists engage in activities on this site, including mining gems, panning for fossils, and zip lining.
Conclusion
San Antonio has numerous monuments and historical sites that we cannot cover in this article. The ones reviewed in this article are a few of the popular monuments in San Antonio.
