Mission Nuestra Senora de la Purisma Conception de Acuna (better known as Mission Concepcion) is the only one of the San Antonio missions to have not fallen into ruin at some point.
On 05 July 2015, the UN designated the San Antonio Missions as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Five Spanish missions and a ranch property located in and around San Antonio make up site.
The specific properties that comprise this UNESCO World Heritage site are as follows:
*Mission San Antonio de Valero (AKA The Alamo)
*Mission Espada
*Mission San Jose
*Mission Conception and
*Mission San Juan
*Ranch de las Cabras
From the UNESCO Website: (
visit link)
"San Antonio Missions
The site encompasses a group of five frontier mission complexes situated along a stretch of the San Antonio River basin in southern Texas, as well as a ranch located 37 kilometres to the south. It includes architectural and archaeological structures, farmlands, residencies, churches and granaries, as well as water distribution systems. The complexes were built by Franciscan missionaries in the 18th century and illustrate the Spanish Crown’s efforts to colonize, evangelize and defend the northern frontier of New Spain. The San Antonio Missions are also an example of the interweaving of Spanish and Coahuiltecan cultures, illustrated by a variety of features, including the decorative elements of churches, which combine Catholic symbols with indigenous designs inspired by nature."
From the Handbook of Texas online:
NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LA PURÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN DE ACUÑA MISSION. Mission Concepción was originally established in East Texas in 1716 and moved to its present site in San Antonio in 1731. Concepción is the best preserved Spanish mission in Texas. Its stone church, which was completed in 1755 and has never fallen into ruin, is considered by some historians to be the oldest unrestored church in the United States.
Concepción was the second of six Franciscan missions established on both sides of the present Texas-Louisiana border by the Ramón expedition of 1716–17. . . Fray Isidro Félix de Espinosa, president of all Queretaran missions in Texas, founded Concepción on July 7, 1716.
. . .
On March 5, 1731, Vergara refounded Concepción on the east bank of the San Antonio River about halfway between the already existing missions of San Antonio de Valero (Queretaran, 1718) to the north and San José (Zacatecan, 1720) to the south. The mission was renamed Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña in honor of viceroy Juan de Acuña, Marqués de Casafuerte.
Archeological findings suggest that Concepción was built on the site of a previous mission-either that of San Francisco Xavier de Nájera (1722–26) or San José's original location. Efforts were made to bring Indians from various, mostly Coahuiltecan, tribes to the new Queretaran missions. One thousand natives were reported willing to join. Temporary shelters were built at Concepción, and an acequia was started. This canal, perhaps already started before Concepción's relocation, came to be known as Pajalache (a derivative of Pajalat, the name of one of the groups served by the mission). After completion years later, it irrigated the surrounding fields for more than a century.
. . . Between 1718 and 1793 at least 150 separate Indian groups, speaking numerous languages and dialects, were represented by one or more individuals at the five San Antonio missions. . . .
Concepción prospered during the early 1730s, despite frequent Apache-led raids and quarrels between the missionaries and the civilian Canary Islanders, who formed the elite of San Antonio, over land ownership and other mission rights. . . . In 1739 a devastating epidemic of smallpox and measles swept the missions, and many Indians died. . . .
The mission recovered, however, and by 1740 the number of neophytes had grown to 210. Adobe buildings gradually replaced the original huts. The farms were producing surplus food, cattle had multiplied, and several workshops were in operation. . . .
. . . By 1756, when Ortiz made his second visit, Concepción was flourishing. The church had been completed and dedicated on December 8, 1755. Measuring roughly eighty-nine by twenty-two feet, with walls forty-five inches thick, the cruciform structure had, among other features, a cupola, two towers, a carved portal, a polychromed façade, latticed windows, and a choir loft. A new friary with arched ceilings was under construction. Most of the 247 residents lived in adobe houses. Tools and supplies abounded, orchards had been planted, and cotton was becoming a staple crop. The mission had 40 yokes of oxen, more than 700 cattle, 1,800 sheep, and many horses. About 200 Indians, newcomers from the coastal group nicknamed Manos de Perro, were expected soon.
When the bishop of Guadalajara visited Concepción in 1759, he found the sacristy in perfect order and 167 Indians ready for confirmation. . . .
In 1767 Charles III, Bourbon king of Spain, published the "Pragmatic Sanction," an important decree by which the Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish empire and the crown claimed absolute power over Spanish church affairs. This new government policy eventually brought to an end the relative autonomy of Franciscan missions on the frontier and contributed to their final collapse.
The college at Querétaro . . . prepared to transfer all of its Texas missions to the governance of the college at Zacatecas. . . The transfer to Zacatecas was completed in 1773. . .
On April 10, 1794, Commandant General Pedro de Nava issued a decree by which the four San Antonio missions were to be partially secularized. . . .Mission land was distributed to the [resident Indians -- BMB] in the presence of their elected governor. Lots were set aside for government taxes and for common cultivation, and the depleted mission stock, tools, and supplies were also distributed.
The exempt church buildings were placed under the care of the missionary from San José. Religiously, Concepción was reduced to a sub-mission of San José. Politically, it came under the control of the civil authorities of San Antonio. . . .
The city of San Antonio attempted to confiscate Concepción's land in 1812 with help from the governor. In 1813 the revolutionary forces of Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara chose Concepción as headquarters. Most mission records (although kept by then at San José) were destroyed. From 1815 on, Concepción merged with San José but was not completely abandoned. By 1819 church services were no longer held at the mission.
Mexican independence brought final secularization. The new government issued a decree to that effect on September 13, 1823. The last Zacatecan president, Fray José Antonio Díaz de León, surrendered the mission churches and remaining inventory to Francisco Maynes, military chaplain of San Antonio, who represented the Diocese of Monterrey, on February 29, 1824. With the exception of the churches and fifteen acres of land that now belonged to the diocese, all mission property, including dwellings, fences, and stone walls, was sold at auction by the government. . . .
In 1835 the mission grounds were the site of the battle of Concepción, in which Texas revolutionaries under James Bowie defeated Mexican troops under Martín Perfecto de Cos; some of the buildings were apparently damaged during the fight.
In 1841 the Republic of Texas conveyed the title of ownership of the Concepción church and land to the Catholic Church, represented by Bishop J. M. Odin. But Concepción's church continued to be used as a barn by the settlers and was later used, after annexation, as a supply depot by the United States Army.
In 1855 Odin gave use of Concepción's land to Marianist brother Andrew Edel, founder of St. Mary's Institute in San Antonio. The Marianists obtained clear title to the mission in 1859 and purchased additional land for farming, intended to supply and support the school. The church was cleaned and repaired, blessed, and reopened for services on May 28, 1861. A Marianist novitiate was in operation at Concepción for a few years. . . .
The Marianists transferred the title of Concepción to the bishop [of San Antonio -- BMB] in 1911. Soon afterwards an orphanage was built on mission grounds, staffed by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, who also built a convent there in 1926. . . .
During the 1930s, the federal government undertook limited restoration work, mostly roof repair and replastering, on the mission church. Archeological excavations started at that time, but the most serious investigations were conducted in the 1970s: ruins of the first friary, the adobe church standing in 1745, the granary and associated workshops, and three rows of Indian quarters were found.
Still standing today are the virtually unrestored stone church, the sacristy and the president's office (often called the infirmary), and portions of the second friary and adjacent arched corredor. All were built between 1755 and 1760.
Modern Mission Road bisects the former mission compound, separating the cluster of buildings from the quarry. Concepción is a state and national historical landmark, now part of San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, and is open daily to the public. Masses are celebrated at its church on Sundays, holidays, and special celebrations."