Mission Espiritu Santo

Next we headed out of town and stopped at the Goliad State Park which houses an old restored Spanish Mission. This was built on this spot in the 1700's and was rebuilt and restored in the 1930's by the CCC boys. Since it is owned by the state, they cannot have services or Holy water there. We got lots of info by a very nice park ranger whose ancestors came to this area from Spain in the 1500's. They had a great museum with diorama's showing what life was like in the mission. The mural below shows Senora Francisca Panchita Alavez who saved at least 28 lives during the Goliad massacre, she is called the Angel of Goliad. She begged a high ranking officer in the Mexican army to spare their lives. See more about the massacre in the next section. The photo of the room with the candle and the old stone walls shows the only remaining original part of the mission. It was the sacristy. The walls that are in ruins are also original.