Welcome to a new history of old San Antonio.

Episode four, Building San Antonio.

I'm Brandon Seal.

I'm my city, San Antonio. Tonight I'm looking at your lovely life.

In the previous episode, the Canary Islanders arrived in the San Antonio area and formed the first real civic government,

establishing in Texas that third leg of the Spanish colonial stool composed of the Spanish military,

the Franciscan missionaries, and civil society. A political compromise in 1745 helped define each

group's rights and responsibilities and resolve beyond a doubt that each would have a

permanent role to play in San Antonio's future. Their place secured, each now set out to

assert their permanence through a massive building campaign.

In this episode, we're going to survey what they built, working from south to north,

from Espada to San Juan, to San Jose, Concepcion, Valero, San Fernando, and lastly,

Military Plaza, and the Spanish Governor's Palace.

To start with, I should offer a few comments about the architecture of the period generally.

In FYI, I'm pulling extensively here from both the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook Online,

as well as the UNESCO World Heritage Application submission for the San Antonio Missions.

You hopefully know by now that the San Antonio missions were designated in 2015 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the only such site in the state of Texas.

The late Spanish Baroque architecture of 18th century San Antonio remains as striking today

as it was when it was built, its raw stone-cut beauty singing through the ages.

And it sings even louder when we appreciate the material and logistical constraints

under which these buildings were constructed.

Over an approximate 50-year period, some one million metric tons of

...