Mission Nuestra Señora de la Concepción and the Spanish Mission in the New World

Mission Nuestra Señora de la Concepción is one of five Spanish missions in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in 1716, the mission was relocated from East Texas to its present site in 1731. The stone church took about twenty years to build.

The Spanish established missionary outposts in Texas as barriers to the threat of French expansion from Louisiana. Using a system they had employed previously in Arizona and New Mexico, Spanish missionaries (Catholic priests and members of religious orders) moved into remote areas to build missions where they preached Christianity and worked side-by-side with the native peoples, planting crops as well as hunting game. The missionaries also taught the natives about Spanish culture, including language, arts and crafts, and politics. In this way, the missionaries converted the native population to Christianity and allegiance to the Spanish Crown.

At its peak, Mission Concepción included a convent, farmland, workshops, a granary, and adjacent communities called "pueblos." One of the oldest surviving mission churches in the American Southwest, Mission Concepción is now stripped to bare stone, but when it was completed in 1755, it was originally plastered white and adorned with red, blue, yellow, and black painted designs. Constructed by native artisans using local materials, the stone-faced adobe structure features a floor plan that reflects Spanish Catholic traditions. The mission's architecture was an amalgam of several historical architectural styles; Moorish, Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance influences were modified to meet the needs of frontier life.

Read basic historical information about the mission and its art and architecture in the two-page chapter on Mission Concepción in the Picturing America Teachers Resource Book. The questions on the second page prompting analysis of the building's design and purpose can be discussed prior to student research on the church and mission system. These questions can be revisited after student research is complete (see Activity 3).

For further historical information, you can visit the Mission Concepción page on the National Park Service's San Antonio Missions National Historic Park website.

The Picturing America Teachers Resource Book also provides comparative material on other notable buildings. Consider comparing the mission with the Ohio State Capitol (1838-1861), which was designed by Thomas Cole and others as a home for the legislature of that state. You might begin by asking students about the functions of each building, what those functions say about the people who built them, and how well the buildings reflect the needs and aspirations of the communities they were meant to serve.

If teachers and students are new to the topic of the Spanish exploration of the New World, they might begin with the overview of "The Spanish" in "American Beginnings: 1492 to 1690" from the National Humanities Center Toolbox Library: Primary Resources in U.S. History and Literature.

To set up the class discussion of the mission and its way of life, teachers may also quickly review the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park website maintained by the National Park Service, especially the sections "Mission Frontier," "Church and State on the Frontier," and "San Antonio Missions: Their Beginnings."

Activity 1. The Art and Architecture of the Mission

Begin by having students look carefully at the images for Mission Concepción (additional images of the mission are available from the Library of Congress), briefly pointing out that some of the views show how the building looked in an earlier state. They can find more images of the mission's art and architecture by going to the National Park Service page for the mission. They can also find out more information about the mission architecture by using the EDSITEment-reviewed Handbook of Texas Online website to do their research. To learn about the different historical styles of architecture that influenced the artisans, students can consult the EDSITEment-reviewed Art History Resources website. Give them the following questions to answer:

Describe and Analyze

• Have students point out the parts of the building that identify it as a church. Is the building symmetrical? Why or why not?
• Ask students what purpose the two towers on the front of the church served.
• Encourage students to compare Mission Concepción's 1755 façade to the way it looks today.
• How has the appearance of the church changed? Ask students what they think has caused this change.
• Ask students why the Spanish were interested in building such complex missions.

Interpret

• In addition to religion, what other important functions did the missions serve?
• What buildings were often parts of a Spanish mission?
• Which American Indians lived at the missions?
• Why did they live there?
• Ask students why the Spanish and American Indians constructed European-style churches in America.
• Show students examples of seventeenth-century Baroque church façades. The Obradorio façade of the famous Spanish pilgrimage church of Santiago de Compostela in Spain is an excellent example. Images are available at the official website of the Cathedral in Santiago.
• Discuss why Mission Concepción is much simpler than many of these ornate European churches.
• How do we know this church was Christian? Have students list the clues they can find by looking at the building.
• Find design elements that suggest the number three. Ask students why they think the number three might be important for the design of this type of building.

Activity 2. The People of the Mission

Begin by having students look at the large illustration of Mission Concepción for a few minutes. Adapt the method set forth in the Teaching with Historic Places Photo Analysis Worksheet link from the National Park Service site. Then divide the class into three main groups (and smaller subgroups of each, if the class is large). Have each group read about one of the three communities that came together in the mission: the Native Peoples, the Spanish, and the Franciscan missionaries. If desired, students can do further research on these groups by searching the EDSITEment-reviewed Handbook of Texas Online. Now have the three groups of students read about a day in the life of the mission, as well as farming and ranching at the mission.

For each of the selected communities, ask students to make a list of the reasons that these people came together to live in one place. Then ask them to imagine what the daily activities were for each community at the mission. Ask each of the student groups to choose a person from their researched community, such as a teenage Indian boy or girl, a Franciscan priest, or the young child of a Spanish officer. Ask students to imagine what a day was like at the mission for each of these group members. What would their tasks have been? How would they have interacted with members of the other groups?

Activity 3. The Organization and Purposes of the Mission

Ask students to look at a map of the mission area from the National Park Service website and figure out where each of the people in the communities they are researching lived and worked. Have them find further activities by researching the Handbook of Texas Online.

Based on the history and architectural significance of Mission Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, students can provide their own narration for the video below, produced by the Arizona State University Hispanic Research Center. Using digital media tools, students can splice the video together with images and video of a "mock" interview with a classmate who has researched the topics and related history. Students can also use their research and the images to create their own tour video for potential visitors. 

Along with the missions, the Spanish built presidios or forts to protect those associated with the mission from hostile Indians or European rivals. Soldiers stationed at the presidios recovered runaways, served as a policing force within the community, and taught the resident Indians a variety of military skills. One of the San Antonio missions, Mission San Antonio de Valero, was turned into a fort in the early 19th century. The soldiers referred to the old mission as "the Alamo" after the Spanish word for "cottonwood" in honor of their hometown Alamo de Parras, Coahuila. Have students read about presidios and the importance of the Alamo in U.S. History.