Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission San Juan Capistrano was originally founded in East Texas in 1716 and was reestablished on the east bank of the San Antonio River in 1731. Despite its remote location far from the Presidio of San Antonio de Bexar, the mission community prospered. Native Americans who came to live there were taught Christianity and a different way of life that included farming. A walled compound protected the church and living quarters, and crops were grown on surrounding labores using water channeled from the nearby river through hand-dug acequias. Surplus food was sold or traded to other missions and settlements. Beginning in the 1790s, San Juan was converted from a religious to a civil community through secularization, with living quarters and farmlands distributed among Native American residents while the Catholic Church retained the chapel and convento. Some residents, including descendants of early mission families, continued to live and farm there. The mission deteriorated during the 1800s and early 1900s, but preservation work began in the 1960s to stabilize and repair the walls and surrounding structures, and the mission church was completely restored in 2013.

San Antonio, Texas · United States