I rarely photograph churches but the southwestern missions are a special case. The northern European settlers built forts staffed with soldiers and tried to drive out or at least control the native population. As I'll followup later it was not until 1879 that Indians were legally recognized as people. In contrast the Spanish built missions which are actually forts, staffed them with priests, and tried to co-opt the natives to an European lifestyle.
Mission Concepcion is probably the most famous and the icon of the area.
I think all of the missions we visited remained functioning churches with active congregations. Here in the interior of Mission Concepcion the Christmas tree remains in this first week of January. We did run into a couple of cases where services were being conducted and either skipped the inside or waited for the service to be completed.
While there remains an active congregation, Mission San Jose is actually operated by the National Park Service. These views show the protective walls surrounding the mission. Housing for the local population was typically built into the walls and the beehive oven was their cooking spot.
With the church I learned another trick using Hugin Panorama to get people out of the picture. Unfortunately the blue lift on the left was being used to make exterior repairs and the park service cart seemed locked in place. The front view used three seperate shots to get a combination without someone in the picture.
Here is one place where I think there was an active service and I just photographed the church entry. They are still not sure the use of all the compartments built into the walls. Some were probably storerooms, some work areas, and maybe even housing for unmarried residents. While severely deteriorated you can see the remains where the second floor was installed and the noched log at the end of the room is what passed for a ladder in the Good 'Ol Days.
Apparently life in the mission was superior to hunting and gathering in the open subject to attack by wandering rivals. Today we see the results of 450 years of global warming so in the late 1500s these apartments in the walls with another beehive oven under the trees was likely the height of luxury for the natives. The small remnent of the wall frescoes indicate the whole compound may have been a bright and cheerful place to live and work even if the regimented lifestyle was a major change from searching for what could be found.
Time has not been kind to the Mission San Juan although the small shrine and the interior nave are loveingly maintained the walls show the ravages of the years.
Some of this may be the division of responsibility between the congregation and the Park Service. I'm sure the congregation does not have the funds for a major building restoration and the Park Service does not have the funds to do everything everywhere like caring for these exterior parts of the mission.
Although the area was much wetter in the 1500s it was a long way from lush. To support their large permanent population the monks had the natives construct an extensive series of canals diverting water from the San Antonio River and its tributaries to cultivated fields. With intensive agriculture filling the storerooms of the mission the stout walls could fend off attackers much longer than the attackers could live in the countryside. This remenint or the Espanda Aqueduct is mostly original but I think there have been some modern repairs.
The Mission Espada church is in rather better shape than Mission San Juan but the outside facilities still show a lot of deterioration.
This old window probably had some type of shutter but you can get the general idea of the accomodations.
And finally just because I think they look great is one of the ancient live oak trees tipped on it's side and branches resting on the ground but still hanging on just like the missions of which I'll have more photographs later.