On a mission to see some history

I hope you guys aren't getting too tired of all of my photos from our recent trip to San Antonio; I promise there's only a few more days' worth to go.  There was just so much fabulous history on display that I can't help but share as much of it as possible.  On our second full day in San Antonio I managed to talk Captain Husband into taking a short car ride to visit the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park; the park actually preserves four of the five Spanish frontier missions in San Antonio (the Alamo is the fifth).  Our first stop was the Mission Concepcion, which was completed around 1755 and is one of the best preserved of the Texas missions.

The entrance to the church building was surrounded by an elaborately carved stone portal; according to period descriptions regarding the church, the facade was further decorated with brightly-colored frescoes, which have long since been lost to the ravages of time.

While the exterior is bereft of any painted ornament, the interiors of several of the Mission buildings still retain remnants of their colorful eighteenth-century frescoes.  These ceiling and wall ornaments were revealed and preserved during a restoration project undertaken in 1988; today only four rooms clearly show the remnants of these beautiful works of art; the two ceiling ornaments pictures above were found in the baptistry (left) and the library (right).

I could have spent several hours wandering around this architectural gem (CH was keeping Sammy happily occupied outside on the grounds of the park while I explored), but we had more missions to see before they closed for the day.