Explore San Antonio

San Fernando Cathedral on Main Plaza is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of San Antonio. Its cornerstone was laid in 1738 for settlers from the Canary Islands; from 1868 to 1873 architect François Giraud rebuilt it with a Gothic Revival nave and twin bell towers, keeping the original sanctuary. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Spanish Governor's Palace on Military Plaza is a one-storey adobe residence completed in 1749 for the captain of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar; the keystone over the door bears the arms of King Ferdinand VI. The last visible part of the presidio and a National Historic Landmark since 1970, it is a city museum with furnished rooms and a courtyard garden.

The San Antonio River Walk is a network of walkways one level below the streets of downtown San Antonio along the San Antonio River. Built from 1939 with Works Progress Administration funds to plans by architect Robert Hugman, it is lined with restaurants, shops and hotels and links La Villita, the Arneson River Theatre and other downtown sights.

The Buckhorn Saloon & Museum on East Houston Street grew from the horn collection Albert Friedrich began showing in his saloon in the 1880s, where hunters could trade a set of horns for a drink. Its halls show mounted animals of more than 500 species beside a working saloon and the Texas Ranger Museum, with badges, firearms and a re-created frontier street.

Hard Rock Cafe San Antonio is a restaurant of the Hard Rock chain on the San Antonio River Walk, opened in January 1995 on Crockett Street. The building has three floors with patios and balconies over the river, a dining room hung with music memorabilia, a rooftop bar and a Rock Shop.

La Villita is one of San Antonio's first neighborhoods, a block of adobe, Victorian and limestone buildings on the south bank of the River Walk. Restored from 1939 by the National Youth Administration under Mayor Maury Maverick, it is now an arts village with craft shops, galleries and restaurants, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Alamo is the former Mission San Antonio de Valero, founded by Spanish Franciscans in 1718, whose limestone church and Long Barrack stand on Alamo Plaza downtown. In 1836 it was the site of the Battle of the Alamo in the Texas Revolution, in which its defenders were killed. Visitors enter the church, walk the grounds and see exhibits of the period.

The Tower of the Americas is a 229 m (750 ft) observation tower in Hemisfair, designed by San Antonio architect O'Neil Ford as the theme structure of the 1968 world's fair, HemisFair '68. Elevators rise to an observation deck with floor maps and murals on the history of Texas, a bar and a revolving restaurant; there is also a 4D theater ride.

The San Antonio Museum of Art occupies the former Lone Star Brewery, a castle-like brick complex from the 1880s on the Museum Reach of the River Walk, and opened in 1981. Its collection of about 30,000 objects covers antiquities from Egypt, Greece and Rome, Asian art, Latin American art including folk art, and modern and contemporary works.

The Japanese Tea Garden lies in a former limestone quarry on the northwestern edge of Brackenridge Park, next to the San Antonio Zoo. Laid out from 1917 by Parks Commissioner Ray Lambert, it has stone paths and arched bridges, koi ponds, a waterfall and a thatched pavilion; the Jingu family lived in the garden from 1919 and ran a tea room there.

The San Antonio Botanical Garden opened in 1980 on a former limestone quarry and waterworks site north of downtown and covers about 17 hectares. Its Lucile Halsell Conservatory, designed by Emilio Ambasz in 1988, groups glass greenhouses around a sunken courtyard; outside are a Japanese garden, rose and cactus gardens and a Texas native trail.

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park preserves four Spanish missions founded in the 18th century along the San Antonio River: Concepción, San José, San Juan and Espada, together with the Espada Aqueduct. Their stone churches still hold Catholic services, the park's visitor center is at Mission San José, and the missions form part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The McNay Art Museum opened in 1954 in the Spanish Colonial Revival house that painter Marion Koogler McNay built in 1927 to designs by Atlee and Robert Ayres. Its collection covers 19th- and 20th-century European and American art, and the Jane and Arthur Stieren Center by Jean-Paul Viguier (2008) holds exhibitions.