San Francisco De Espada

I learned that Mission Espada’s roots lie in East Texas, where Spain founded the Mission San Francisco de los Texas in 1690. Mission San Francisco De Espada was established along the San Antonio River Banks on March 5, 1731. The word Espada means “sword”. Mission Espada is the furthest mission south of the other missions, so more than likely it was one of the first missions to be established by the Spairnards. Mission Espada is one of the missions with the acequias or in other words irrigation ditches. I learned that the door of the church has a broken arch, the mystery to the door it is said that one of the stone mason’s fled from the mission grounds one night before he could finish putting the stones up in the door arch, so that is why the door is like it is where it looks like it has a broken arch and it is not as wide as it should be. If the door arch was completed it would have been a little bit wider than what it is. The Mission was built on the banks of the San Antonio River and the water was brought in by the acequias systems, or the irrigation ditches. This looked really neat, because I would have never thought of that if I was there in that time period. The visit to the mission helped me understand that life back in that time period was not easy. The acequias is what amazed me the most.