Visit the World Heritage Center to experience history and culture. Share your adventures with ! The San Antonio Missions are a group of five Spanish colonial missions situated along a 7.7-mile (12.4-kilometer) stretch of the San Antonio River Basin in southern Texas. The missions were established in the early eighteenth century by Catholic religious orders to spread Christianity am
ong local natives and to establish self-sustaining, socio-economic communities loyal to the Catholic Church. World Heritage designation was achieved because of the sites' example of interweaving of Spanish and Coahuiltecan cultures. Elements of the Catholic Church and indigenous peoples remain present in several of the missions. World Heritage Sites are places of ‘outstanding universal value' selected by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). San Antonio Missions National Historical Park grounds (Missions San José, Concepción, San Juan, and Espada) are open seven days a week from sunrise to sunset. The park is closed for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day.
