Mission San Jose in San Antonio II

by Joan Carroll

Title

Mission San Jose in San Antonio II

Artist

Joan Carroll

Medium

Photograph - Digital Art

Description

It was a bright hot day at Mission San Jose near San Antonio TX. People walked from shady spot to shady spot, as did I! I found a place under a tree for some photos. This mission is formally known as Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo. Founded in 1720, it was built on the banks of the San Antonio river several miles to the south of the earlier mission, San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo). San Jose was the largest of the missions in the area. Present day sensibilities aside, the job of the mission was to acquaint the local inhabitants with Christian teaching, European values, and vocational skills and to convert them to useful citizens of the empire. At its height, the community contained about 350 Indian neophytes, sustained by extensive fields and herds of livestock. The inhabitants also learned arts and crafts, music and singing, architecture and sculpture, fresco painting, window masonry, woodwork, metal craftsmanship, and agricultural technology including systematic cultivation of the soil, selective use of seed, irrigation techniques, the use of hydraulic power in a flour mill, and granary storage methods. San Jose was viewed as the model among the Texas missions and gained a reputation as a major social and cultural center. It became known as the "Queen of the Missions." Mission activities officially ended in 1824. After that, the buildings were home to soldiers, the homeless, and bandits. Thus the mission fell into disrepair. Much of what is visible today was reconstructed by the Works Progress Administration of the 1930s. In 1941, Mission San Jose was declared a State Historic Site, and later that same year, a National Historic Site. When the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park was established in November 1978, the Spanish colonial mission was assured of protection in cooperation with the Archdiocese of San Antonio and the parish. Today, this is an active parish church in the Archdiocese of San Antonio and also part of the UNESCO World Heritage site encompassing all the missions in the San Antonio region.

FEATURED PHOTO, UNESCO World Heritage Sites group, 1/16/18

FEATURED PHOTO, Churches group, 12/22/15

FEATURED PHOTO, The Sales Fairy group, 8/13/15

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August 7th, 2015

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