The Alamo began as the San Antonio de Valero, a Spanish Mission, in 1718. The first mission in San Antonio, the Alamo is now the #1 most visited tourist attraction in Texas. The city’s four southernmost Spanish colonial missions—Concepción, San José, San Juan and Espada—are included in the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park and are walled compounds encompassing a church and buildings where the priests and local Native Americans lived and worked.
