San Antonio's Mission Espada: Gun Holes
Founded in 1690 as San Francisco de los Tejas, this oldest of the East Texas missions was moved to the San Antonio River in 1731 and there renamed San Francisco de la Espada.
It was Spanish policy that missionaries make mission community life like a Spanish village's life. To develop a solid economy, they taught mission Indians vocations. Men learned to weave cloth. Blacksmiths, indispensable, repaired farm implements and broken metal tools. Others learned carpentry, masonry and stone cutting for building elaborate buildings. Espada was the only mission that made bricks, which one can still see. (14-03-13-6262)
San Antonio's Mission Espada: Gun Holes
Founded in 1690 as San Francisco de los Tejas, this oldest of the East Texas missions was moved to the San Antonio River in 1731 and there renamed San Francisco de la Espada.
It was Spanish policy that missionaries make mission community life like a Spanish village's life. To develop a solid economy, they taught mission Indians vocations. Men learned to weave cloth. Blacksmiths, indispensable, repaired farm implements and broken metal tools. Others learned carpentry, masonry and stone cutting for building elaborate buildings. Espada was the only mission that made bricks, which one can still see. (14-03-13-6262)