National Register Listing

Church of Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria y Guadalupe

a.k.a. San Fernando Cathedral

115 Main Ave., San Antonio, TX

The San Fernando Cathedral is a historic church in San Antonio, Texas, USA. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio.

The Cathedral of San Fernando (Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria), the remains of which are now part of San Fernando Cathedral, was the original parish church of the Villa San Fernando de Bexar, the first civil settlement (1731) in the Spanish Province of Texas. It is one of a few structures dating from the Spanish colonial mission period In Texas (1690-1821) and one of two surviving structures of the 18th century Villa de Bexar.

The church of Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria y Guadalupe was begun in 1738, and completed in 1749. Although damaged by fire In 1828, it was still the parish church of San Antonio at the beginning of the Texas Revolution.

The church is associated with several events of the Texas Revolution and the men who were Involved in it. In 1831 James Bowie, who died five years later at the Alamo, married Ursula de Veramendi in the church. After the Battle of Concepcion on December 12, 1835, the victory flag was raised in the tower of the church. A few months later Santa Ana had the flag of "no quarter" raised in the same place at the siege and fall of the Alamo.

In February, 1837, Colonel Juan Seguin, Instructed by General Sam Houston to give the cremated remains of the defenders of the Alamo a burial with military honors, brought their remains to San Fernando for part of the ceremony. In 1889 Juan Seguin stated that he Indeed had burled the casket containing the remains outside the sanctuary railing, near the steps.

Other sites have been recorded as the burial place of the defenders of the Alamo; however, Habig (1968:264) states that "Workmen, doing some repair work In the cathedral in 1936, were digging in this very spot when they came upon a box containing charred bones, particles of coal, rusty nails, shreds of military uniforms, buttons and crushed skulls." No records of this find are available, and the Identification of the burial cannot be considered certain, but It Is considered possible that the remains of the defenders of the Alamo are still burled in the old part of San Fernando Cathedral.

By 1840 the church was "almost in ruins and was renovated to look as it has in former days" (Habig 1968:265). By 1868 the community of San Antonio had grown to be many times its original size and Candelaria y Guadalupe, by now called San Fernando, was no longer large enough to accommodate the parishioners. The cornerstone of a new church was laid on September 27, 1868. The new church was designed by Francis Giraud, architect of several other notable buildings in the area. The tower and facade of the old church were torn down, together with the choir loft and baptistry, and the new structure added. In 1872, before the completion of the new church, the original cupola collapsed and was rebuilt. The new church was considered completed in 1873, although only the north tower of the new facade had been built. The south tower was constructed some-time after 1890. In short, most of the old church was incorporated within the sanctuary of the new one, and the foundations of the sanctuary walls and bell tower of the old church may still be extant beneath the present floor.

In 1874 the church became a cathedral when it became the center of the new Diocese of San Antonio.

Just after the turn of this century the two towers of the facade were raised some thirty feet, and pinnacles added. In 1922 a chancery and rectory, designed by Leo Dielman, were added to the west end of the cathedral.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1975.