I've always thought the Mission San Jose is the most impressive since it is "all there", that is, it has been restored to it's original size with the indian quarters, the grist mill, the granary, the entire outer wall, the chapel, and the convento.   The National Park Service has a very good movie about the importance of San Jose and the cultrual impact of the early Spanish missionarie's practices and policies.      

The tour begins just outside the south wall of the mission.

The wall is a little over 400 ft. long, here is the rest of it.   The mission is built as a fortress against marauding Apache indians.   Note the turret at the corner with loop holes (to shoot through).   All the outside walls have loop holes all down their length.   The loop holes are made of a flat block of stone with a round hole, vertically imbedded in the stone of the wall (pics later).

A little closer shot of the south east turret, you can see the larger cannon loop hole near the wall.

Partial interior shot of the south east turret.   You can see the large cannon loop holes below and the rifle loop holes above the shooting platform.

The ranger enters one of the indian quarters rooms in the south east corner near the turret.   The posts and frames in front and above each door was a kind of arbor, to be covered by vines etc. so there would be a cool shady spot in front of each apartment.

The indians were brought into the mission and about 14 were made to live in a two room apartment.   Here is what the interior of one of these apartments looked like.

The tour proceeds north along the east wall.   You can see indian quarters apartments along the wall on the right and one of their cooking ovens in the center of the pic, the mission is in the background about 400 ft. from where I'm standing.   Again, note the arbor frames in front of each apartment.

The ranger said the walls in the foreground here probably contained a blacksmith work area.   The chapel is about 200 ft. away.   In the background you can see the SW corner of the chapel with the bell tower and choir stair, to the left of that is the monks kitchen, to the left of that is the granary, and behind the tree is the main gate.

The chapel and convent.

We approach the convento.   It was a two story apartment where the friars lived, with a covered porch on this side.   There probably weren't any nuns here in 17xx.

Looking at the back of the chapel, with the convento on the right.

A fireplace in a building next to the convento.

The ranger talking on the porch of the convento.   Architecture Note: The ranger said the arches into the quarters are Spanish arches, lined with brick and pointed at the top, while the porch above was supported by Moorish arches, round and smooth.   I have also noticed a lot of Spanish arches that were round and smooth.

The back or East chapel door and it's carvings.   The ranger said the friars brought expert stone masons to carve and teach the indians.

On the South side of the chapel is this "Rose Window", said to have been carved by a man in memory of his fiance.

Another look at the "Rose Window" showing the relief in the carvings.

South side of chapel, the "Rose Window" is on the right, the choir stair is the tower on the left with the open door.   I have noticed that a lot of Catholic churches of this period had a choir loft above the front door but, originally, had no way to reach it without a ladder.   Here there is an external tower containing a stair up to the choir loft.

Closer pic of the choir stair, showing the steps and doorway.

Each step is a single piece of log, the round part in the center is hollowed on the bottom, and domed on top to fit into each other, while the outside end fits ito a mortise in the wall.

Restored fresco on the exterior wall, the entire chapel was originally covered this way.

The front door of the chapel.

A little closer look at the carving on the front door.

Carving above the fron door.

Carving on the bell tower.

Shot from front of chapel toward friar's eating, working area.   The granary is on the left.

Granary from chapel.   Friar's kitchen, office is on the right.

The main gate to the left of the granary and almost directly in front of the chapel.   Note the shooting platform and loop holes above the gate.

The Friar's (monk's) eating and working area.   The granary is on the left, the chapel is behind me and to the left.   The trellis work above the doors were covered by vines and limbs, forming an arbor of sorts to provide shade and cool air just outside the doors and windows.

Right in fron of an office door leading into the granary, this is what the arbor could have looked like.

Part of the friar's kitchen.

I'm guessing this is a wash basin in the kitchen.

Inside the granary, the south end.

A fireplace in the granary.

These are caled "flying butresses", a unique architectural feature.   You see butresses on most early Spanish buildings of any size, they were to help support tall walls and keep them straight.   If the granary was just filled with grain there would be a lot of outward pressure on the wall.

I find it interesting that "flying butresses" are beside normal butresses.

As you walk out the north gate, toward the grist mill, another small turret with loop holes by the gate.

Grist mill from the north gate.   You can see the bridge over the acequia (aquaduct), bringing water to the grist mill.   The acequia begins miles away, and takes water from the San Antonio river, then conducts it, by gravity, at a lower grade than the river, to the mission.   The acequia at this point is well above the river's level.   There are parts of the acequia system still carrying water in several San Antonio parks.

The in-bound millrace, you can see the sluice gate (upper left) allowing water from the acequia to enter the pennstock, on the right.   There is also a bypass (left foreground) so water wouldn't overflow the penstock into the mill.

The penstock, you can see the valve at the bottom to control the water flow across the water wheel on the lower level.

Out-bound side of the mill race, leading back to the San Antonio River.   Note it is much lower than the bottom of the penstock.

The mill's water wheel, in the lower room, just below the bottom of the penstock, sorry I couldn't get closer.   The water from the penstock, came through the wall at the opposite side, turning the wheel, then exited directly toward us, then to the left, and via the lower mill race back to the river.

The mill's upper room, you can see the grind stones, the hopper above for unground corn, and a bucket below for ground corn.   The horizontal wooden handle sticking through the wall, is the control for the valve at the bottom of the penstock.   The strange round device in the extreme lower left, is an electric fan.   This mill actually operates, the lady who demonstrates it wasn't here on Sunday, so we didn't get to see it work.