Site of the Mission Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe
Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A Spanish outpost founded in 1716 by the pioneer Franciscan Antonio Margil de Jesus as a means of civilizing and christianizing the Nacogdoches Indians. Abandoned temporarily due to the French incursions from Louisiana in 1719. Restored by the Marquis of Aguayo in 1721. Abandoned permanently in 1773. Its deserted buildings formed a nucleus for the settlement of Nacogdoches in 1779 by Antonio Gil y Barbo. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1716 by the pioneering Franciscan Antonio Margil de Jesus, this Spanish mission aimed to convert and gather the Nacogdoches Indians of East Texas. Threatened by French incursions from Louisiana, it was briefly abandoned in 1719, restored by the Marquis of Aguayo in 1721, and finally given up in 1773. Its deserted buildings became the nucleus around which Antonio Gil y Barbo re-founded the town of Nacogdoches in 1779.
Why it matters
The mission marks the contested frontier between Spanish and French North America, and its ruins seeded one of the oldest towns in Texas.
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Related people
- · Antonio Margil de Jesus
- · Marquis of Aguayo
- · Antonio Gil y Barbo
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
La Calle Real del Norte
Nacogdoches, TX
La Calle Real del Norte followed an eighteenth-century trail linking the villages of the Nacogdoche and Nasoni peoples in the East Texas woods. Spanish missionaries, soldiers, and settlers traveled it, as did French traders and American adventurers, long before Anglo-American colonists arrived. The old road was a thread of contact and commerce across the contested Spanish-French-American borderland.
Ancient Mound
Nacogdoches, TX
Mound Street in Nacogdoches took its name in the 1700s from a line of earthen mounds that once ran from Main to King Street, built long before by the region's prehistoric Indigenous peoples. Only a single mound now survives. Pottery recovered from one demolished mound — a structure once measuring roughly 150 by 75 feet — is preserved in the Old Stone Fort.
Site of the Home of James Dill
Nacogdoches, TX
James Dill came from Pennsylvania to the Texas-Louisiana borderlands as a frontier Indian trader in the era when this country was still ruled from Mexico City. Trusted by Spanish authorities, he became the first alcalde — roughly a mayor and magistrate — of Nacogdoches under the new Mexican government in 1821. The State of Texas marked his home site during the 1936 Centennial.
Original Location of Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Nacogdoches, TX
Catholic worship in Nacogdoches reaches back to Spanish missions of the early 1700s, interrupted by French incursions and periods of abandonment. When the Diocese of Galveston formed in 1847, Bishop Jean Marie Odin elevated Nacogdoches from mission to parish, officially founding Sacred Heart with French priest Louis Chambodut as first pastor. Its original 1847 frame church, on Elm (later Pecan) Street, served until the 1930s before the congregation moved and the old building was relocated for preservation.