Mission San Juan Capistrano - San Antonio, Texas
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 29° 19.946 W 098° 27.320
14R E 552880 N 3244940
Historic Spanish Roman Catholic mission in San Antonio.
Waymark Code: WM3AK3
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/05/2008
Views: 116
The Mission San Juan Capistrano, one of the five San Antonio missions, under
went several building periods during its ninety-three-year existence as a
Spanish outpost in the New World.
The mission compound follows a traditional plan of rooms arranged side by
side in a rough quadrangle around a plaza. Entrance to these rooms is gained
through walls facing the plaza. Spaces not occupied by structures are walled
(see site map). Minor modifications on this plan were made in the several
building periods of the mission's life.
By 1756 a church had been completed, with a cloistered convent and a granary.
The Indian quarters were composed of Jacale homes made up of upright posts
plastered with adobe for walls an thatched roofs. Evidence of these jacales
(rows of post holes evenly and closely spaced along the south wall) were
revealed during excavations at the site in 1971..
In 1762 Fray Mariano Francisco de los Dolores inspected the mission. He
states that a second church was under construction and the convent expanded.
Indians were still living in the temporary quarters.
The apex of mission development is considered to be that period between 1756
and 1777 when the economic stability of the mission allowed it to supply goods
to other missions.
In 1794 Mission San Juan Capistrano was partially secularized. Twelve
Indian families received ownership of mission land and properties, but by 1823
(the complete secularization of the mission) when San Juan property was sold at
auction nearly all the Indian population had disappeared and only four or five
Indians were left at the mission.
What remains now are the ruins of the second church (c. 1756-1763/64) and the
third church (post 1762),originally the granary, that chapel which is now in
use. During excavations conducted in January-March 1971 foundations of what is
believed to be the first church (1731) were uncovered.
Additional remains of the mission complex are the walls surrounding it,
foundations of some of the Indian quarters, the convent, granary foundations,
the well and an old residence (c. 1824) built within the mission walls after its
secularization. ~
Texas Historical Commission Atlas
Mission San Juan Capistrano is one of four missions now operated by the
National Parks Service in the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.
The current church which is the third for the mission and was originally a
granary is an active Catholic church in the Archdiocese of San Antonio
and has weekly services. The mission is open 9 am - 5 pm daily.