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• Home • Up • The Alamo • San Fernando Cathedral • Misión San Jose • Misión San Francisco de la Espada • Misión Concepción • Misión San Juan Capistrano • |
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San Fernando Cathedral was founded
March 9, 1731. The fifteen families who were invited to the New World by
King Phillip V of Spain started the cathedral as the planned center of life in
old San Antonio. San Fernando became the official center of the city and
today is still considered the traditional center.
San Fernando originally had only
one bell tower.
Antonio López de Santa Anna Pérez de Lebrón, better known to
posterity as General Santa Anna, ordered the scarlet flag of no quarter
to be flown from the bell tower to let the Defenders of the Alamo know
that their fate had been sealed. The twin bell towers of today
were part of an 1868 reconstruction. The original bell tower of
the cathedral was razed.
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San Fernando Cathedral
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Banner proclaiming the 275th Anniversary of San Fernando Cathedral
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Raspa (snow cone) vendor in the shadow of San Fernando Cathedral
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San Fernando Cathedral view through Plaza de la Islas
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SAN FERNANDO CATHEDRAL. The site for the Church of San Fernando was selected on July 2, 1731, when Juan Antonio Pérez de Almazán, captain of the Presidio of San Antonio, laid out a central square for the villa of San Fernando de Béxar, as San Antonio was then called. He followed the instructions by the Spanish government for the newly arrived Canary Islanders. The church was to be located on the west side of the square, which may still be considered the center of San Antonio.
Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "SAN
FERNANDO CATHEDRAL," (accessed May 2, 2006).
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