"San Antonio's Spanish past" San Antonio Things to Do Tip by TheWanderingCamel

Standing in the shade of the oak trees around San Antonio's Plaza de Armas, the square dominated by the solid block of City Hall, the towers of San Fernando Cathedral across the way, it all looks the very model of municipal correctness and order , but these old oaks have seen some very different times. Reading the marker (photo 1) outside the main entrance to City Hall will tell you of the square's colourful past beginning in 1722 when the Spanish Presidio's adobe walls enclosed the square. Today's quiet scene belies the bloody deaths of Mexican rebels who were executed here following the 1813 uprising, and one of the oak trees saw more than a few lynchings. Matters military and violence gave way to a lively market during the days of the Texas Republic and the city's Courthouse stood for a few years until finally City Hall was built in 1902.

The big boulder (photo 2) in the north-east corner marks Mile Zero on the Old Spanish Trail that led to San Augustine in Florida in one direction and west to San Diego in California in the other.

Dating back to 1749, San Fernando Cathedral (photo 3) is the oldest in the US. It doesn't actually face Plaza de Armas but major construction work around the Main Street entrance to the cathedral means that currently (late 2007) the cathedral can only be accessed from the side, just off the square.

A two-minute stroll along Dolorosa will bring you to the corner of Laredo where you'll find a tiny stone cottage sitting in the middle of a parking lot. William Sidney Porter - better known as writer, O. Henry - founded the his 'The Rolling Stone' newspaper here in 1895 (photo 4).