Category: USA

Mission San Juan

San Antonio TX

Mission San Juan (full name: Mission San Juan Capistrano).
Originally founded in 1716 in eastern Texas, Mission San Juan was transferred in 1731 to its present location. In 1756, the stone church, a friary, and a granary were completed. A larger church was begun, but was abandoned when half complete, the result of population decline.

San Juan was a self-sustaining community. Within the compound, Indian artisans produced iron tools, cloth, and prepared hides. Orchards and gardens outside the walls provided melons, pumpkins, grapes, and peppers. Beyond the mission complex Indian farmers cultivated maize (corn), beans, squash, sweet potatoes, and sugar cane in irrigated fields. Over 20 miles southeast of Mission San Juan was Rancho de Pataguilla, which, in 1762, reported 3,500 sheep and nearly as many cattle.
The small, simple sanctuary at Mission San Juan.
Walls of the structures in the mission.

Mission San Jose

San Antonio TX

Mission San Jose (full name: Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo.) is the most complete and reconstructed mission. This mission dates to 1720, and it was fully restored in 1930s. Mission San Jose has perhaps the most beautiful sanctuary, but unfortunately it was closed on the day we were here.
Sculpted in 1775, the Rose Window is considered to be one of the finest examples of baroque architecture in North America.

Mission Concepcion

San Antonio TX


The San Antonio Missions National Historic Park contains four missions within several miles of each other. The missions were built in the early 1700s and have been the center of their communities since then, even today.

Mission Concepcion (full name: Mission Nuestra Senora de la Purisma Concepcion de Acuna) is one of the oldest unrestored stone churches in the USA.
Mission Concepcion served as a religious center, and the missionaries here also taught the inhabitants to function as a European community. The combination of Spanish Catholicism and native cultures produced the unique culture of modern day South Texas.
Mission Concepcion sanctuary.
Decorated for Christmas.
The baby Jesus figure is placed in the stable on Christmas Eve.

San Fernando Cathedral

San Antonio TX

San Fernando Cathedral was founded in 1731 by a group of 15 families who came from the Canary Islands at the invitation of King Phillip V of Spain and is the oldest, continuously functioning religious community in the State of Texas. This church was planned to be at the center of life in this city. The Cathedral building is also the oldest standing church building in Texas.
San Fernando Cathedral at night on Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve service.
The bones of the Alamo heroes lie here. William Travis, David Crockett and Jim Bowie, and others.

Christmas in Fredericksburg TX

This is a 26 foot German Christmas Pyramid, or “Weihnachtspyramide”.
Fredericksburg is a cute small city in the Hill Country of Texas, For the Christmas season, every night at 6 PM they have their tree lighting ceremony in the historic Marketplatz. The loud speakers play Christmas carols, then a narrator tells of the history of Christmas in Fredericksburg, and then the countdown to the tree lighting, where all the trees lights are turned on to cheers from the crowd. The Marketplatz crowd was actually pretty large and enthusiastic. (I took this picture hours later so not many people were there by then).
Fredericksburg’s Main Street lighted for Christmas.