Although the Alamo is a national historic site (especially for Texans!), most visitors don’t realize that before the famous 1836 battle between a few dozen men and a Mexican army numbering in the thousands, this site was already holy ground as a Franciscan mission founded to evangelize the area’s Native Americans.

In 1724, Father Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares relocated Mission San Antonio de Valero (founded six years earlier) to a more promising location. The Mexican government seized the property in 1792.