San Antonio Spanish Governor's Palace
— a whitewashed adobe holding three centuries of afternoons.
Not only on a wall.
San Antonio Spanish Governor's Palace, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“A low whitewashed house on the west side of Plaza de Armas, the keystone above the door carved 1749. Never actually a palace and never the governor's residence; it was the comandancia of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar, the captain's office and quarters when San Antonio was the capital of Spanish Texas. The city bought it in 1928 and restored it as a museum. Ten rooms around a stone courtyard with a fountain and a fig tree. It is the only surviving example of an aristocratic Spanish colonial townhouse in Texas.
The place, in three passes.
The Spanish Governor's Palace stands on Plaza de Armas in downtown San Antonio, directly across from City Hall. Despite the name, it was never a palace and never the residence of a governor: it served as the comandancia, or military headquarters, of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar, the Spanish garrison that protected the missions. The keystone above the main door is carved 1749, and the surrounding structure took shape across the eighteenth century. The City of San Antonio purchased the property in 1928 and restored it as a museum; the National Park Service designated it a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
Thick whitewashed adobe and limestone walls hold the building cool through a Bexar County summer. The plan is ten rooms wrapped around a stone-paved interior courtyard with a small fountain, a fig tree, and a brick mosaic underfoot. The Hapsburg double-eagle carved above the main doorway dates the visible facade to about 1749. Interior period furnishings, brought together during the 1929-1930 restoration, include a Spanish escritorio, hand-forged ironwork, and a kitchen with the original beehive horno. It is the only surviving example in Texas of an aristocratic Spanish colonial townhouse.
Open Tuesday through Sunday, generally 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Mondays and most major holidays. Admission runs a few dollars for adults, with a small discount for seniors, students, and military, and free entry for children under six. The site sits on Plaza de Armas at 105 Plaza de Armas, directly across from City Hall and a five-minute walk from the Alamo and the River Walk. Self-guided tours move through the ten period rooms in about thirty to forty-five minutes; docent-led tours run on weekends.
