DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Mission San Francisco de la Espada. Now, some places carry a name that makes you stop and think. Mission San Francisco de la Espada — St.
Francis of the Sword. According to tradition, that name may have come from a statue of St. Francis inside the chapel, a statue that once grasped a sword.
May have. The marker leaves that door open just a crack, and I reckon that's part of what makes this place linger. Established in San Antonio in 1731, Espada sits as the farthest south of the five missions in the area.
But if you follow this story back far enough, some believe it stretches all the way to East Texas, to a mission called San Francisco de los Tejas, founded in 1690. A succession of moves, over decades, eventually brought it here to the banks of the San Antonio valley. That's a long road for a mission to travel.
When it finally settled here, the original buildings were, without doubt, adobe. A wall surrounded the whole compound — church, friary, granary, workshops — the full life of a mission community wrapped inside stone and mud. And it was a working life.
Extensive farms and pastures spread out nearby. By 1745, the Indian residents were producing grain and beans, and the mission itself owned eleven hundred and fifty head of cattle and seven hundred and fifty sheep. That is not a quiet little outpost — that is an operation.
Now, most of those original structures are gone. But not all of them. Standing to this day is the southeast bastion — a fortified round tower — and it holds a distinction all its own.
It is the only mission fort left intact in all of San Antonio. Three-foot rock walls, holes cut through for cannons and muskets, and a vaulted roof still holding after all these centuries. Whatever was coming from that direction, the people inside meant to meet it.
Espada is also one of the few missions where descendants of the original Indian converts and Spaniards still live nearby. History didn't just pass through here — some of it stayed. And then there's the water.
Composing what was once a vital waterworks system: a dam one mile north, an irrigation ditch, and an aqueduct near this very site. That aqueduct is the only extant Spanish aqueduct in the United States. The only one.
Everything else like it has crumbled or been swallowed up somewhere between here and history. This one is still standing. A mission that may have traveled from East Texas, carrying a name tied to a sword-holding saint, sitting on the only intact mission fort in San Antonio, beside the last Spanish aqueduct in the country.
Espada doesn't make a lot of noise about what it is. It just endures.
What the marker says
Established in San Antonio in 1731. May have been named for statue of St. Francis in the chapel which, according to tradition, once grapsed a sword. One of the few missions near which descenants of the Indian converts and spaniards still live, Espada is considered by some to date back to Mission San Francisco De Los Tejas, founded in East Texas in 1690. A succession moves eventually brought it here. The original buildings at Espada, the farthest south of the five missions near San Antonio, were undoubtly of adobe. A wall surrounded the church (usually called a chapel), friary, granary,and work shops. Extensive farms and pastures lay nearby. By 1745 the Indians produced grain and beans, and the missioned owned 1,150 head of cattle and 750 sheep. One of the few remaining early structures is the southeast bastion (fortified round tower), which is the only mission fort left intact in San Antonio. Its three-foot rock walls, which contain holes for cannons and muskets, support a vaulted roof. Composing Espada's once-vital waterworks are a dam (one mile north), an irriation ditch, and a fine aqueduct (near this site)--the only extant spanich aqueduct in the United States.