City - San Antonio State - TEXAS Country - United States
About
"Misión San Antonio de Valero", later to become famous as the ALAMO, was established in 1718, the first of five Spanish missions founded in San Antonio to Christianize and educate resident Indians. As the mission grew, the church structure that stands today in midtown was begun about 1755. Its mission role completed, the old buildings were abandoned by 1836 when the site, by then known as the ALAMO, became the "Cradle of Texas Liberty." Rebelling against repressions of Mexico's self-proclaimed dictator, Santa Anna, a band of 189 Texas volunteers defied a Mexican army of thousands for 13 days of siege (Feb. 23 to Mar. 06). The Alamo defenders died to the last man, among them such storied names as William Travis, Davy Crockett, and Jim Bowie. Cost to the Mexican forces was dreadful. While Santa Anna dictated an announcement of glorious victory, his aide, Col. Juan Almonte, privately noted: "One more such 'glorious victory,' and we are finished." (The finish came just 46 day later when Sam Houston's Texans routed the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto near Houston, and captured "the Napoleon of the West," as Santa Anna billed himself.)
For more information, please use these links:
http://hotx.com/missions/
http://www.nps.gov/saan/
http://www.thealamo.org/
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Photo notes: * The ALAMO faces almost due West. If you don't prefer a "backlight" picture, please schedule yourself to arrive in the afternoon. * As it is so famous and popular, there are non-stop lines of visitors in front of this respectable site of "martyrdom for the birth of Texas". Should you prefer to not record people with shorts and T-shirts in your photo, please be prepared with enough patience. I finally was able to take this picture (without visitors) at the end of second trip, 2 weeks later.
very nice image.. I have some pics of the alamo.. mostly night photos..(always forget to have my camera with me when I visit san antonio :) ) you put a lot of great info on your pictures... you should check out www.virtualtourist.com, you may like that site to put many of your travel photos...
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