Part of a 27-building complex listed on the National Register of Historic Places, La Villita contains architectural and archaeological evidence of early civilian and military life in Spanish Texas; it also played an important role in the Texas Revolution.
La Villita was San Antonio’s first neighborhood. It was originally a settlement of primitive huts for the Spanish soldiers stationed at Presidio San Antonio de Bexar. After a flood in 1819, brick, stone, and adobe houses replaced the earlier structures. In 1836 La Villita was the site of General Santa Ana’s cannon line in the Battle of the Alamo, and a map from early that year showed the village to be of considerable size.
Today La Villita is a thriving art community (a series of small shops). It is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
