Five Texas missions, including the Alamo, declared World Heritage Sites

The five centuries-old Spanish missions in Texas—newly declared as World Heritage Sites by a U.N. agency–”have helped to shape the face of San Antonio,” Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller said.

“They are still a haven of culture and history,” he said. “We especially value that they continue as active parishes of the archdiocese, where hundreds of families on the city’s south side continue to gather for prayer within the original walls, which many dedicated persons have worked to preserve over the years.”

San Antonio’s archbishop made the remarks a day after UNESCO announced the San Antonio Missions met certain criteria to receive the agency’s recognition as World Heritage Sites. The missions are: San José, Concepción, San Juan, Espada and San Antonio de Valero, better known as the Álamo.

They join a list of more than a thousand properties designated as World Heritage Sites, including the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park and the Statue of Liberty in the U.S., the prehistoric Stonehenge monument in England and the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia.

The UNESCO website explained the criterion the missions met for such a designation: “to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design.”

They were constructed by Spanish missionaries in the 1700s and “illustrate the Spanish Crown’s efforts to colonize, evangelize and defend the northern frontier of New Spain,” the site said. They also feature “architectural and archaeological structures, farmlands, residencies, churches and granaries, as well as water distribution systems.”

The five frontier mission complexes can be found along the San Antonio River basin in southern Texas. The missions were the only submission for world heritage status this year from the United States.

“The San Antonio Missions are also an example of the interweaving of Spanish and Coahuiltecan cultures, illustrated by a variety of features, including the decorative elements of churches, which combine Catholic symbols with indigenous designs inspired by nature,” it said.

According to a February 2014 story in Today’s Catholic, newspaper of the San Antonio Archdiocese, the process for nominating the San Antonio Missions for the designation took more than seven years. A compelling package of material had to be compiled to make the case that San Antonio’s 18th-century string of mission complexes met UNESCO’s criteria.

The final 344-page dossier included highly detailed maps, photos, slides, plans and extracts, along with extensive bibliography and glossary and was accompanied by audio-visual materials. It all detailed all of the properties’ history, authenticity, integrity, state of conservation, management and guidelines for protection and monitoring.

The materials were sent in January 2014 to the Paris headquarters of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee. A final step in the process was an on-site inspection.

Mission Valero photo by Cqui, Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 All other missions taken by Travis Witt Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0