San Fernando Cathedral - San Antonio, Texas
Posted by: BruceS
N 29° 25.472 W 098° 29.647
14R E 549070 N 3255128
San Fernando Cathedral is the Cathedral for the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
Waymark Code: WM390Y
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/28/2008
Views: 54
From Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State, San Antonio section:
SAN FERNANDO CATHEDRAL, on Main Plaza between Trevino and Galan Sts., has
the oldest parish church building in the State. The iron cross mounted on the
Moorish dome of the earliest part of this Roman Catholic cathedral marks the
exact geographical center of the city. In the Villa of San Fernando a parochial
church stood here; its cornerstone was laid in 1738. Colonel Francis W. Johnson
raised the flag of victory from its towers in 1835 following the Battle of San
Antonio; Santa Anna used the church during the Alamo siege, and from its top
flew the blood red flag of no quarter. The building as it now appears was
completed in 1873 (the rear of the building being original), and the parish
church became a cathedral in 1874. In 1936 fragments of bone were disinterred
from beneath the floor, believed by some authorities to be remains of Alamo
heroes, buried there after their charred bones had been recovered from the site
of the funeral pyres.
The Cathedral continues to serve as the Cathedral for the Archdiocese of San
Antonio. The Cathedral has undergone extensive restoration work in the
last few years to stabilize and restore the Cathedral for its continued use in
the future. The Cathedral with the walls of the original 1738 church , is
the oldest continuously operating cathedral in the United States and the oldest
building in Texas.