San Antonio Missions & Alamo Now a World Heritage Site

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Taken from the Rivard Report.

The Mission and Alamo become the first World Heritage site in Texas, and the first west of the Mississippi River for buildings constructed by European settlers. Indigenous settlements and natural formations have received such designation in the West and Southwest. World Heritage designation conveys a new level of international recognition and protection to unique natural settings, such as the Grand Canyon, and historically significant cities, buildings and monuments regarded as irreplaceable cultural treasures.

For San Antonio, World Heritage status brings a whole new dimension to the city’s cultural heritage, recognition, and the potential for a new kind of cultural tourism. Many people travel regularly to World Heritage sites around the world, and it will now be up to local and federal officials to devise programs and improvements to make a visit to the Missions and the Alamo an unforgettable experience for such visitors.

Plans to remake the Alamo Plaza, to add living history elements to the Mission grounds, and enhancing the surface roads and surroundings to the Missions will take a number of years, but much can be done in time for the city’s 300th anniversary celebrations in 2018.

http://therivardreport.com/san-anton...heritage-site/

Goldenboot was right, no one has talked about this from this past weekend!

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Heritage status seen as economic boon
By Lynn Brezosky
San Antonio Express-News
September 2, 2015 Updated: September 2, 2015 10:11pm
http://www.expressnews.com/business/...on-6481825.php

Now that San Antonio has won the Word Heritage Site designation for its missions, it's time for the next step: maximizing and marketing that designation to capitalize on the traveler looking for historic destinations, a noted historian told civic leaders and others at the Downtown Alliance's Urban Renaissance Luncheon at the Hyatt Regency on Wednesday.

“We have some work to do to make sure that these iconic treasures are pristine and engaging,” said John Nau III, owner of the nation’s largest distributor of Anheuser-Busch beverages, chairman of the Texas Historical Commission, former chairman of President George W. Bush’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and current member of the board of directors of the National Park Foundation.

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I know they are creating a master plan for the Alamo site, which I couldn't be more excited for. Especially with a new museum, the Alamo will actually have more things to do on the site.

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Visit the Newest U.S. World Heritage Site
Photograph by Richard Nowitz, National Geographic Image Collection/Alamy
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com...21_600x450.jpg

Built in the 18th century by Spanish Franciscan priests, the five San Antonio Missions—Concepción, Espada, San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo), San José, and San Juan—were designated on July 5 as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The missions, which represent the largest collection of Spanish colonial architecture in the U.S., are the newest addition to the World Heritage List in the United States and the first in Texas. “[The missions] are very much a part of what continues to shape the community and personality of San Antonio,” says Susan Snow, an archaeologist for San Antonio Missions National Historical Park who has been coordinating community efforts to secure World Heritage status since 2007. “To bike down the Mission Reach of the River Walk in the cooling weather and see the distinct architecture from afar or attend a mariachi mass in the heart of one of its churches really pulls you into the soul of locals honoring their heritage.”

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San Antonio embarking on World Heritage plan
By Benjamin Olivo
San Antonio Express-News
November 23, 2015 Updated: November 23, 2015 10:26pm
http://www.expressnews.com/real-esta...an-6653165.php

San Antonio officials say that by May, they will have recommendations for land use around the city’s five Spanish colonial missions, collectively named a World Heritage site this past summer. And they say those recommendations, part of an overall multifaceted strategy, will emerge after an “extensive civic engagement process.”