Castroville was settled in September 1844 by predominantly Catholic immigrants brought to Texas by empresario Henry Castro from the Alsace region of France along the Rhine River bordering Germany, and they brought with them the European custom of proclaiming a village's faith by erecting a cross on a hill overlooking the community. As early as the 1850s, a cross stood on the summit of Mount Gentilz on the west side of town, the highest promontory overlooking the village, on land owned by Henri Castro, who named the hill in tribute to his friend Theodore Gentilz, an artist who helped in Castroville's early settlement and as a surveyor laid out Castroville, D'Hanis, and Quihi. The original cross, erected shortly after the community's founding, was consecrated by Father Claude Dubois, the first pastor of St. Louis Catholic Church. Around 1875, after two miscreants chopped down the first cross, a new one was erected. In 1900, extremely heavy rains caused the Medina River to flood across Castroville, and residents took refuge on the higher ground of Cross Hill until the water receded; shortly afterward, perhaps in gratitude for their deliverance, the badly weathered cross was replaced with a new 16-foot-high wooden cross and five-foot zinc corpus, forming a complete crucifix, an upgrade principally promoted by the St. Louis Parish Women's Organization, the St. Ann's Altar Society, and dedicated in 1902. That crucifix stood for about 20 years until vandals tore it down. The next cross, made of wood from two telephone poles and dedicated on Good Friday of 1929 or 1930, lasted for the next 40 years. In 1971 it was replaced by the present 13-foot-tall concrete cross, crafted by artisans in Mexico. Overlooking Castroville from Mount Gentilz, the cross has long stood as a cultural monument to the community's historically rooted beliefs, customs, and practices, and for more than 170 years residents and visitors have admired Cross Hill and kept its tradition alive.