Historic Catholic mission in San Antonio, Texas, named in part for the Marquis de San Miguel de Aguayo, José de Azlor y Virto de Vera.
General Information
Follow S St Mary's St and Roosevelt Ave to Napier Ave. Continue on Napier Ave to destination.
Overview
Mission San José, founded in 1720 to relieve overcrowding at the Alamo, is known as the "Queen of the Missions" — the largest and most fully restored of the four mission sites in San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Its 1768 limestone church still stands, and the surrounding walls, once lined with living quarters for around 350 Indigenous residents, were rebuilt during a WPA-funded restoration in the 1930s, giving visitors the clearest sense of what a working mission compound looked like.
The church facade is carved with religious figures from a cross at the top down to St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary, but the mission's best-known detail is the Rose Window on the sacristy's south wall, a Baroque stone carving from 1775 whose sculptor is unknown. Legend holds it was carved by Pedro Huizar in memory of his sweetheart Rosa, who died at sea on her way to join him from Spain.
Things to Do
Find the Rose Window
Seek out this famous Baroque carving on the south wall of the church sacristy, one of the most photographed details in the mission park.
Walk the Restored Walls and Indian Quarters
Explore the rebuilt perimeter walls, where rooms for hundreds of mission residents once stood, for the best sense of the compound's original scale.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mission San José (Texas)", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
