Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

Friars established Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña (also Mission Concepción) in 1711 as Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hainais in

East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that comprises most of 41 counties. It is primarily divided into Northeast and Southeast Texas. Most of the region consi ...

. The mission was by the Domingo Ramón- St. Denis expedition and was originally meant to be a base for converting the

Hasinai The Hasinai Confederacy ( Caddo: ) was a large confederation of Caddo-speaking Native Americans who occupied territory between the Sabine and Trinity rivers in eastern Texas. Today, their descendants are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma ...

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and teaching them what they needed to know to become

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

citizens. The friars moved the mission in 1731 to

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

. After its relocation most of the people in the mission were Pajalats who spoke a

Coahuiltecan The Coahuiltecan were various small, autonomous bands of Native Americans who inhabited the Rio Grande valley in what is now southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. The various Coahuiltecan groups were hunter-gatherers. First encountered by Europ ...

language. Catholic Mass is still held at the mission every Sunday. On October 28, 1835, Mexican troops under Colonel

Domingo de Ugartechea Domingo de Ugartechea (c. 1794 – 24 May 1839) was a 19th-century Mexican Army officer for the Republic of Mexico. Biography Early years Domingo de Ugartechea served for José Joaquín de Arredondo in 1813. Ugartechea as well as Antonio L ...

and

Texian Texians were Anglo-American residents of Mexican Texas and, later, the Republic of Texas. Today, the term is used to identify early settlers of Texas, especially those who supported the Texas Revolution. Mexican settlers of that era are referr ...

insurgents led by

James Bowie James Bowie ( ) ( – March 6, 1836) was a 19th-century American pioneer, slave smuggler and trader, and soldier who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He was among the Americans who died at the Battle of the Alamo. Stories of h ...

and

James Fannin James Walker Fannin Jr. (1804 or 1805 – March 27, 1836) was an American military figure and slave trader in the Texas Army and leader during the Texas Revolution (1835-1836) against Mexico. After being outnumbered and surrendering to Mexi ...

fought the '' Battle of Concepción'' here. Historian J.R. Edmondson describes the 30-minute engagement as "the first major engagement of the Texas Revolution." Mission Concepción is the oldest unrestored stone church in America. it was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

on April 15, 1970 and is part of

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park San Antonio Missions National Historical Park is a National Historical Park and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site preserving four of the five Spanish frontier missions in San Antonio, Texas, USA. These outposts were established by Catholic r ...

. In 2015, the

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

designated Concepción and four other San Antonio missions, including The Alamo, as a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

, the first in Texas and one of twenty-three such establishments in the United States. Mission Concepción consists of a

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

o, and

granary A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often made of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animal ...

. When originally built, brightly painted

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

s decorated both the exterior and interior of the building. Traces of the frescoes still exist on the weathered facade of the building. Experts restored some of the artwork on the interior ceilings and walls of the convento in 1988. The Archdiocese of San Antonio completed another restoration of the mission's interior in 2010 which exposed more frescoes in the sanctuary and nave.

Gallery

File:Mission_Concepcion._1st_Mission._(8971699362).jpg, The church in 1892. File:Mission Concepción July 2017 01.jpg, The church in 2017. File:Mission Concepcion San Antonio 1.JPG, The area surrounding the mission. File:Mission Concepcion San Antonio Door.JPG, The portal to the church. File:Mission Concepcion San Antonio Interior.JPG, Interior of the church. File:Mission-Concepcion-stairwell.jpg, Stairwell adjacent to the church leading to the former Father President's office File:Mission Concepcion San Antonio Frescoe.JPG, Interior fresco upon the ceiling of the old library in the convento. File:Flickr - …trialsanderrors - Mission Concepción, San Antonio, Texas, axonometric view.jpg, Architectural drawing from

HAER Haer may refer to: * Haer, Senegal, a village in the Bignona Department of Senegal *Haer, Punjab, a village in Punjab, India *Haier, a Chinese electronics firm *HAER, the Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) ...

File:Mission Concepción July 2017 12 (grotto).jpg, The grotto in 2017.

Solar alignment

The western entrance to the church is aligned to the sunset in such a way that an "annual double solar illumination event" occurs every year on or around August 15, the feast day of the

Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...

.Note: The same solar alignment also occurs on or around April 27.

References

External links

San Antonio Missions National Historical ParkMission Conception parishMission Conception
entry at

Handbook of Texas Online The ''Handbook of Texas'' is a comprehensive encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular ...

* * {{authority control Concepcion San Antonio Missions National Historical Park San Antonio Missions (World Heritage Site) Buildings and structures in San Antonio Roman Catholic churches completed in the 1730s History of San Antonio National Register of Historic Places in San Antonio Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Historic American Buildings Survey in Texas 1716 establishments in Texas 1731 establishments in Texas Spanish Colonial architecture in Texas National Historic Landmarks in Texas 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States

Gallery

Solar alignment

See also

References

External links