Alamo Plaza, Texas, United States
4.5 (1.227 reviews) Spent Ranking #23 in San Antonio Points of Interest & Landmarks
Order Free Timed Tickets. If You Struggle to Stand in the Heat, Advance Reading will Enhance Your Experience!
Be sure to order free timed tickets in advance. Our family spent roughly 20 minutes in the small but historically significant church. The timed system worked nicely to manage the # of people inside (creating a peaceful, reverent environment). During our visit there was an historical encampment behind the church and a film showing under a covered area at the very back of the property. Unfortunately, due to warm temperatures and a lack of seating, our family (all >60yo) was unable to further enhance our learning of the historical events which took place on this site :( We hope that the planned renovations will include an air-conditioned visitors center!
Address
, San Antonio, Texas, United States.
Mobile
Website
http://www.sanantonio.gov/historic/Districts/Alamo
Current local date and time now
Tuesday, May 14, 2024, 17:42
User Ratings
4.5 based on (1.227 reviews)
Reviews
-
5jbwhitehouse 5:00 PM Jun 19, 2022
Silence is fitting for this Mission
Timed, free entry via thealamo.org. (210) 225-1391. $9 pp for audio. Lots of construction in the area for new exhibits, but the Alamo is still The Alamo. Surprisingly when we were there the silence inside was absent replaced by loud chattering. Restrooms are in very clean port-a-potties behind the gift shop. There were also a couple of living history demonstrations of cannon shots and weaving.
-
5Tim J 5:00 PM Apr 8, 2022
Impressive Sculptures, Good Primer for a Tour of the Alamo
The Alamo Plaza is not part of the Alamo Tour itself, but it is useful to get a context of what the Alamo was and how the land around it evolved. The most notable piece of the plaza is the Alamo Cenotaph, the 60-foot monument Ozzy Osborne urinated on and was subsequently banned from performing in San Antonio for over a decade over, depicting the 'Spirit of Sacrifice' of those who refused to surrender and died in the Alamo. When we visited it was being used as the focus of a protest by a veterans group concerned about changes in the religious identity of Texas and the US. I'm not sure if this is typical, but given its position being out on public land and the symbolism of what it represents I can see why different groups would use it to make their grievances known. Around the monument there are some landmarks across from shops (such as Ripley's Believe It Or Not) that represent the lodging houses of indigenous people being converted to Christianity and educated on how to read the bible. Along the Alamo wall there are brass models of how the Alamo evolved from a Spanish mission to eventually become a military fort, how it changed during the leadup to the Battle of the Alamo and how it continued to be modified through the Civil War. If you want to visit the Alamo itself, I highly recommend taking the time to soak the Plaza in as it will provide some needed context that will make your walkthrough of the Alamo itself richer. It is also a nice area to take pictures in.
