On our free morning in San Antonio with no Fiesta Week activities, we decided to visit the Alamo. First established as a mission in 1718, the Alamo was one of many settlements established by Spanish missionaries in an effort to convert the indigenous population. In San Antonio alone, there are five missions still standing (read about our bike ride to the other four here!). Although there were many missions established, the Alamo was made famous by the battle cry “Remember the Alamo!” referring to the battle fought there on March 6, 1836.
When we arrived downtown I was surprised to realize that the Alamo is literally smack dab in the middle of downtown San Antonio. We headed to the mall across the street first to watch the film “Alamo: The Price of Freedom” to get a better feel of the mission’s history before walking through the actual Alamo. The 48 minute long movie is a tribute to the 189 Texans, Tejanos, and settlers who died defending the Alamo from the Mexican Army led by General Santa Anna. No one knows exactly what happened inside the Alamo during the 13 day siege but the film represents historians best guess for what passed.
Next we walked across the street to the front of the Alamo to enter the church. No pictures are allowed inside the church but walking through the remains we could see the rooms where some civilians waited out the battle. After exiting the church we stepped out into a large courtyard with a few buildings surrounded by a small stone wall.
The courtyard houses a building with exhibits displaying the history of the Alamo, a gift shop and food stalls. Outside there are canons used by the Mexican Army and sometimes reenactors on the lawn! Although the men at the Alamo were defeated, the fall of the mission rallied the Texas troops in the fight for Independence from Mexico with “Remember the Alamo!” as their battle cry. Before visiting I definitely recommend either watching the film like we did or doing your own research. It gave us a lot better perspective of the significance of the small Mission.
