Must Visit Museums in San Antonio – Presidio San Antonio de Béxar | Evans Road CBD Store

San Antonio, Texas

Presidio de Béxar was a Spanish fort built near the San Antonio River, in what is now San Antonio, Texas, in the United States. It was designed to protect the San Antonio de Valero mission and the Villa de Bejar mission. 

The Presidio de Bejar was established on 5 May 1718 by the Spanish governor Martin de Alarcon and his 35 Presidio Soldiers.[citation needed] The Villa de Bejar is recognized as the first Spanish settlement of San Antonio, consisting of the families of the Presidio Soldiers and those of the previous expeditions. It also helped to protect Spain’s claim to the region against French, English, and American aggression.

Expeditions

Many expeditions were organized from the convent of Querétaro to the Texas region, an area of great strategic significance to the Spanish crown. To this end, in 1675, an expedition founded by Fray Antonio de Olivares, Fray Francisco Hidalgo, Fray Juan Larios, and Fernando del Bosque was sent to explore and describe the country beyond the Rio Grande, to check the possibilities of new settlements in the region.

About The Establishment

The operational complex was completed by the building of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar on the west side of the San Antonio River, about half a mile from the site. It was designed to protect the network of missions and civilian settlements in central Texas and to serve the regional interests of Spain, taking into account the hostility of the French, British and Americans.

 The presidio consisted of an adobe house, thatched with grass, surrounded by soldiers and their families in a brush hut. When settlers clustered around the presidio complex and the mission, the town of Béjar or Béxar, which became the center of the Spanish Tejas or Texas, began to be established. Located at the core of several operating systems, Mission Béxar did not suffer the needs and anxieties of other seats. 

Despite occasional Indian attacks, the defenses of the presidio walls were never completed or deemed necessary, as the task was partially completed and later converted into the main walled defense unit.