The Cathedral Basilica of San Fernando de Bexar is a stop on the San Antonio Ghost tour, and issaid to be one of thr most haunted places in a city full of ghosts from the past.
From the Ghost City website: (
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"THE HAUNTED SAN FERNANDO CATHEDRAL
One of San Antonio's most mysterious, and haunted locations
Technically, its name is the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Candelabra y Guadelupe. . . .
As for the peace for the Dead—well, it seems that many spirits still wander around the grounds of San Fernando Cathedral as they did in life . . . and now as they continue to do in death.
The History of San Fernando Cathedral
The Canary Islanders Arrive
. . .
The Canary Islanders arrived in colonial Texas with high hopes and anticipation. They’d been promised land grants, the rights as the first civilian settlers to form a town government, and the prestigious title of hidalgo, which was a rank of Spanish nobility.
The problem: It had all been a lie. There were no towns. There was no government. There were the Spanish missionaries and their accompanying soldiers, and that was it. The King of Spain had sent them so that they could claim the territory as Spain’s before the French arrived and stuck their greedy fingers into it.
. . .
Despite the hardships that San Antonio de Bexar provided to the Canary Islanders, there was one mission that they refused to relinquish: to build and complete a cathedral for them to worship in freely. . .
Less than a year after the peace treaty with the Apache, the Canary Islanders were finally able to lay the final stonework in completing the old San Fernando Church in 1750.
The church was designed in a Colonial style, befit for the time period and the Spanish culture of its founders. While its oldest feature remains its baptismal font, which is said to have been a gift from King Charles III of Spain, the old church underwent a massive renovation during the mid-nineteenth century.
In 1868, the church’s front facade was demolished to make way for a French Gothic architectural style that was all the rage during the period. Architect Francois P. Giraud, who later became the mayor of San Antonio, ran the renovation, and not six years later the church officially was consecrated as a cathedral.
The Diocese of San Antonio was not only the first, official diocese in Texas, but San Fernando became the state’s first cathedral as well. Later, in 1920, the cathedral finally received its beautiful stained glass windows that are so often photographed today.
San Fernando Cathedral was added to the US National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and Pope John Paul II traveled to Texas for the first and only time in 1987 when he visited San Fernando Cathedral. Today, a statue stands in the cathedral in commemoration of the event.
Another renovation project took place in 2003, though this one spanned three-phases and was worth $15 million.
Despite the many alterations and renovation in the last two centuries, the San Fernando Cathedral continues to be the center point of Catholic religious life in San Antonio. Over 5,000 people participate at weekend Masses each week of the year. If that number isn’t astounding enough, over 900 baptisms, 100 weddings, 110 funerals and many other services are performed at the Cathedral each year as well.
It goes without saying that the historic San Fernando Cathedral is quite popular for both the living and the dead, and the ghosts which are rumored still haunt its grounds.
The Ghosts of San Fernando Cathedral
As the oldest church in the Lone Star State, it only makes sense that San Fernando Cathedral might be one of the most haunted locations in all of San Antonio. The apparition of a white stallion galloping in front of the church has been spotted, as though the ghost of the Apache's peace offering from the 1730s has yet to leave the site of his death.
Guests on ghost tours have caught all sorts of paranormal phenomena, including brightly-lit orbs skirting past and the sight of dark shadows moving around.
Who are these spirits who still call San Fernando Cathedral home?
Although we can’t say for certain, it’s quite likely that it might be the energies of the people who were once buried within the walls of the church itself.
Buried Within San Fernando Cathedral
During the early years of the old San Fernando Church, it wasn’t out of the norm to actually bury people within the walls of church. The rankings of the people never mattered. From the highest-ranking men, to the smallest, poorest child, all ultimately found themselves interred within the walls of San Fernando . . . for a period of time, at any rate.
While the parishioners were given the walls, the priests and other prominent Catholics in the parish were given the floor of the church as their final resting place. Anthony Dominic Pellicer, the first bishop of San Fernando Cathedral, is buried under the head of the main aisle of the church. More strangely, the area where the Alamo defenders’ “remains” were found by the sanctuary railing just so happens to be the place where many officers who perished in the Battle of El Rossillo, on March 28 1813, were buried.
For years, many people who visit San Fernando have reported seeing faces appear in the exterior walls of the church. A gaping mouth, two sunken eyes—the features of a skull have appeared to countless of people visiting the oldest standing structure in Texas.
Are the faces on the rock wall only a matter of imagination, and interpretation?
While some might argue that the skull-like, spectral faces that suddenly appear on the outer rock walls of the church are the spirits of those interred within San Fernando Cathedral, there’s no mistaking the amount of people who have been buried within, as well as the amount of paranormal sightings that have occurred elsewhere on the cathedral’s grounds.
Dark Shadowed Ghosts of the San Fernando Cathedral
On multiple occasions, shadowed ghostly figures have been spotted wandering the grounds of the cathedral.
The Dark figure of a Man
On one occasion, a guest on a ghost tour stood listening to her guide regale her with the tales of the church itself. But even as she stood there, her gaze continued to track a strange man who seemed to be following the tour. He trailed them, following them from the front of the cathedral and then again when they edged toward the back of the historic site. And then . . . then, he simply disappeared.
When she tried to describe him, she likened his all-black clothing to the dress style of the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. She’d initially thought him to be another tour guide joining the group, but his abrupt disappearance suddenly had her wandering if he hadn’t been a ghost himself.
To make matters even stranger, a few others of the tour-goers had witnessed the same dark shadowed apparition, leaving all to wonder: who was he?
Ghostly Monks
Other people meandering past the historic, yet haunted, landmark have reported the manifestation of other shadowy figures by the walls and next to the doors of the cathedral. According to some who have seen these specters, many of the ghostly shadows have appeared with hoods drawn down over their faces.
Are these apparitions the residual energy of the monks who once established San Antonio and who may have worshipped at San Fernando Cathedral?
Almost always, these dark figures have appeared in the back of the cathedral and have been known to manifest and vanish almost at will.
But of all the paranormal occurrences which have been seen at the cathedral, the ghostly monks seem to be the most frequently spotted.
Perhaps they are unwilling to leave their house of worship; or perhaps they are simply unable to leave the place where their physical bodies may have been buried within the walls or under the floor of the church.
The Ghost of Halloween
Over the years, San Fernando Cathedral’s haunted reputation has grown tremendously. Because of its innate spiritual ambience as a house of worship, it’s not so surprising that there might be a ghost or two still roaming the grounds.
On Halloween in 2007, however, the common orb-sightings took a step back to make way for a rather incredulous, paranormal incident. Workers were conducting a restoration project on the cathedral by removing old plaster from the original stone. Plans were set in place to re-plaster the walls.
Despite the construction, the Cathedral was still open for visitors. One of whom happened to be touring San Fernando with his handheld video camera. He captured the marble sarcophagus in the back, which many visitors claim to be ghostly cool to the touch at times, as well as the seal on the ground which confirm’s the church’s old age.
Then, without any sort of warning, he captured the visceral image of a man kissing a skull on the head.
He panicked, realizing that not a single soul was in sight.
The image he’d captured on his camera had been nothing but a shimmering apparition of a ghost from long ago.
Visiting the Haunted San Fernando Cathedral
If you find yourself wandering San Antonio during your next trip, be sure to take a moment to stop in to San Fernando Cathedral, which is not only the oldest structure in Texas but the first Roman Catholic church in the state as well.
The Cathedral offers both self-guided and guided tours each day of the week, and parking can be found in one of the private lots surrounding the church as well.
You surely don’t want to miss out on visiting this beautiful place of worship that is such an integral part of San Antonio’s history!
And if you’re lucky, you may come across one of the Cathedral’s many ghosts still wandering the holy ground of the church.
Interested in hearing about more of the ghostly stories attached to the historic and haunted San Fernando Cathedral? Check out our San Antonio Ghost Tours, which will be sure to feature this haunted location!"