City - San Antonio State - TEXAS Country - United States
About
This is the unusual broken arch over the doorway at Mission Espada, one of a chain of five missions established along the San Antonio River in the 18th century that became the largest concentration of Catholic missions in North America. Built primarily to expand Spanish New World influence northward from Mexico, the missions also served to introduce native inhabitants into Spanish society. This mission was originally founded in East Texas under the original name "San Francisco de los Tejas? in 1690.
As the East Texas missions succumbed to drought, malaria, and French incursions, however, it has been relocated to San Antonio in 1731 and renamed ?San Francisco de la Espada". The missions flourished during the middle of the 18th century, but later declined due to inadequate military support, disease, and increased hostilities with Apaches and Comanches.
Whatever the explanation of the said unusual broken arch over the doorway at Mission Espada, many find beauty in the inversion of the expected time.
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