Mission Concepcion

{{Other uses|Concepción (disambiguation)#Geography{{!}}Concepción#Geography}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}

{{Infobox religious building

| name = Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña

| infobox_width =

| image = Mission Concepcion San Antonio.JPG

| alt=

| caption = The church of Mission Concepción

| map_type = Texas

| map_size = 275

| location = 807 Mission Rd
San Antonio, Texas 78210{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/saan/planyourvisit/concepcion.htm|title=Mission Concepción|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=November 8, 2019}}

| coordinates = {{coord|29.390318|-98.491799|display=inline,title}}

| religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic

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| architecture_style = Spanish Colonial

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| year_completed = 1731

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| designation1 = WHS

| designation1_parent = San Antonio Missions

| designation1_date = 2015 (39th session)

| designation1_criteria = {{UNESCO WHS type|(ii)}}(ii)

| designation1_number = [https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1466 1466-004]

| designation1_free1name = State Party

| designation1_free1value = {{USA}}

| designation1_free2name = Region

| designation1_free2value = Europe and North America

| designation2 = NHL

| designation2_date = April 15, 1970

| designation2_number = 70000740

}}

Franciscan Friars established Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña (also Mission Concepción) in 1711 as Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hainais in East Texas. The mission was by the Domingo Ramón-St. Denis expedition{{cite news|author= Donald E. Chipman|date=2010|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fra24|title=RAMÓN, DOMINGO |publisher= Handbook of Texas Online|accessdate= August 13, 2020}} and was originally meant to be a base for converting the Hasinai to Catholicism and teaching them what they needed to know to become Spanish citizens. The friars moved the mission in 1731 to San Antonio. After its relocation most of the people in the mission were Pajalats who spoke a Coahuiltecan language.{{cite book|author=Barr, Juliana|title=Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands|publisher=Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press|date=2007|pages=131|url=http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/T-6710.html}} Catholic Mass is still held at the mission every Sunday.

On October 28, 1835, Mexican troops under Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea and Texian insurgents led by James Bowie and James Fannin fought the Battle of Concepción here. Historian J.R. Edmondson describes the 30-minute engagement as "the first major engagement of the Texas Revolution."{{citation|last=Edmondson|first=J.R.|title=The Alamo Story-From History to Current Conflicts|publisher=Republic of Texas Press|place=Plano, Texas|isbn=1-55622-678-0|year=2000|oclc=42842410|page=224}}

Mission Concepción is the oldest unrestored stone church in America. it was designated a National Historic Landmark on April 15, 1970 and is part of San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.{{citation|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Mission Concepcion|url={{NRHP url|id=70000740}} |format=pdf|year=1971 |author=Bell, Wayne|publisher=National Park Service}} In 2015, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization designated Concepción and four other San Antonio missions, including The Alamo, as a World Heritage Site, the first in Texas and one of twenty-three such establishments in the United States."Celebrating the history of San Antonio's missions: Long-ago view of Concepción is highlight of night", San Antonio Express-News, October 17, 2015, p. 1

Mission Concepción consists of a sanctuary, nave, convento, and granary. When originally built, brightly painted frescos decorated both the exterior and interior of the building. Traces of the frescoes still exist on the weathered facade of the building. Experts restored some of the artwork on the interior ceilings and walls of the convento in 1988. The Archdiocese of San Antonio completed another restoration of the mission's interior in 2010 which exposed more frescoes in the sanctuary and nave.