San Elizario Chapel
San Elizario, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Capilla de San Elzeario) Named for the 13th-century French patron of the military, St. Elzear, Capilla de San Elzeario was established as part of the Spanish military garrison of Presidio de San Elzeario (also Elceario, later Elizario) when it was moved to this site in 1789 from its original location 37 miles to the southeast. After Rio Grande floods damaged the original chapel, the present chapel was built with new adobe bricks and bricks from the original presidio walls. A fine example of the Spanish Colonial Revival style, it is a tangible reminder of the Hispanic and Catholic heritage of this region. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Spain governed the far reaches of northern New Spain, it strung presidios—fortified garrisons—along the Rio Grande to guard settlements and trade routes. This chapel belonged to the Presidio de San Elzeario, relocated to this site in 1789 after floods battered its earlier home downriver. Rebuilt from fresh adobe and salvaged presidio bricks, it still carries the name of a 13th-century French patron saint of soldiers.
Why it matters
The chapel is a tangible survivor of the Spanish colonial and Catholic roots that shaped the Southwest long before it became part of the United States, anchoring the deep Hispanic heritage of the El Paso borderland.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
San Elizario
San Elizario, TX
Founded in 1789 as the Spanish Presidio de San Elceario, this outpost was relocated northward to shield settlers from raids, guarding the El Paso district through the twilight of Spanish rule and the Mexican War for Independence. After the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo drew the border at the Rio Grande, the town became El Paso County's first seat and, in 1877, the flashpoint of the violent Salt War over access to communal salt beds.
Socorro Mission La Purísima
Socorro, TX
When the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 drove Spanish colonists and their Piro Indian allies out of New Mexico, the refugees resettled downriver and named their new home Socorro after the community they had left. Their first adobe church rose in 1691; the present structure was begun after a destructive 1829 flood and finished in 1840 — the same flood that shifted the Rio Grande and, once the river became the U.S.–Mexico border, placed Socorro in the United States. Governed in turn by Franciscans, diocesan priests, and Jesuits, the mission has witnessed Spanish, Mexican, and American rule.
The Killing of General J. J. Byrne
Sierra Blanca, TX
In August 1880, the Apache leader Victorio's raiders ambushed a Fort Davis–bound stagecoach in a steep West Texas canyon, killing its lone passenger, retired general and surveyor J. J. Byrne, almost instantly while the driver wheeled the mules around and raced back to Fort Quitman. It was among the last acts of a two-year campaign in which Victorio's guerrilla tactics baffled and impressed the U.S. Army across Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico. Later that year, thousands of American and Mexican soldiers hunted Victorio down and killed him in Mexico.
Crow Springs
Salt Flat, TX
Named for the birds that flocked to its water, Crow Springs was an oasis in the far West Texas desert used by Indigenous peoples for centuries. The Butterfield Overland Mail built a stage relay station here in 1858, though the route soon shifted south toward Fort Davis, and during the Apache wars of the early 1880s Texas Rangers and Buffalo Soldiers of the U.S. 10th Cavalry camped at the springs to keep New Mexico's Apaches from joining the leaders Victorio and Nana. Today the springs have gone dry, the station has crumbled to dust, and the crows are gone.