I’d like to invite you to come with me on a little tour. Don’t worry. It doesn’t cost you anything. And I’ll be showing you around one of my favorite places: the Alamo. Now, before we start, I should let you know a few rules. Photography is now allowed inside the church, but please, no flash photography. And men, if you’re wearing a hat, please remove it since this is a church. I also ask that you have no opened food or beverage containers with you while inside. Now, shall we begin?
After going through the sturdy wooden doors, we are now in the nave, a long room that stretches all the way to the back of the building. The walls of this room are lined with flags from many different states and countries, each flagpole also holding a narrow streamer with the name of the place the flag represents and the number of men who died that were from there. Looking around the room we see Texas/Mexico – 11, Scotland – 4, Germany – 2, Tennessee 32, Virginia – 15, and so on. We see flags from Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Denmark, Ireland, and other states and countries.
We turn to our right to a small room with a gate across it. This room is not open to the public, but we can still look inside. As you can see, it is closed for further preservation. In here, was the baptistry.
Now let’s cross the nave to the room on the lefthand side of the doors. This room, too, is not open to the public. It was used as a confessional during the mission days and may have been one of the powder rooms during the siege.
Beside the confessional, is a room that we are allowed to enter. This room served as a temporary sacristy, for the actual sacristy became used as the chapel, since the main room of the church was never finished and did not even have a roof. In here is where some of the women and children stayed during the siege.
We walk through the doorway into the next room. Here we see benches and a large screen. It’s time to sit down for a few minutes and watch a short video about how this room would have looked during the siege when it still had ornate frescoes.
Wasn’t that an interesting video? And over here in this corner, if you look very closely, you can see the remains of some of the artwork. Isn’t it so neat that we’re seeing some of the same art as what Susannah Dickinson and Ana Esparza would have seen during the siege?
Now, through the doorway just beside us is the main room again. To our left is an exit, but we’re not ready to leave yet. There’s still more to see. Ahead and to our left is an alcove with several metal plaques. Let’s go take a look at those.
Now that we’re closer, you can see that each of these plaques has several names on it. Each name is the name of one of the men who died here. The first one has the key leaders, Travis, Bowie, Crockett, and Bonham. You will notice that the plaques also tell where each of the men were from. And since we don’t know the names of everyone who fell here, there is a plaque in memory of those unknown to history.
During the battle, this area where we are standing would have been beneath a rampart. You remember there was no roof on this room, only a few arches across the middle of the room. So the Texians placed cannons at the top of the rampart and made a battery there. Captain Dickinson and some of the other artillery manned the battery during the siege.
Take a look up toward the ceiling. You see those six flags? Those are the flags of the six nations that Texas has belonged to through the years. From left to right we have Spain, France, United States of America, Republic of Texas, Mexico, and Confederate States of America.
We’re almost done with our tour, but before we go there are two more things I would like to show you. Over to our right is a layout depicting what the Alamo compound would have looked like during the time of the siege. This gives you an idea of how much has changed through the almost two hundred years since.
And now, for our last stop. Straight ahead is a glass display case. In it are several artifacts from the Revolution. You will see that there are a sword, a saber, spurs, and epaulets inside it. The saber belonged to Sam Houston, the sword to Santa Anna. And the spurs and epaulets are believed to have belonged to Santa Anna as well.
I hope you’ve enjoyed your tour of the Alamo! I’ve enjoyed taking you around, looking at all the interesting things there are to see inside the Alamo. As you have noticed, it’s more a memorial than a museum. Now, if you want a museum, that’s around back. So if you want to see artifacts, you can head over there to see what you can discover.
Or you can take a look in the giftshop or go look around the Long Barrack. They’ve got a great documentary in there about the Battle of the Alamo that you’d probably enjoy. You can also walk around the courtyard and see the well, the huge live oak, and statues of various noteworthy men of the revolution.
I’m going to stay in here a little while longer. Right now, I’m going to head back over to the plaques. Many of these names now mean a lot to me, and I want to take a look at each one of them. I’ll see y’all later.
Interested in learning more about the Alamo? Then check out my historical novel, Remember My Royalty. It releases on March 6th, the 190th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo. You can currently pre-order the book, and each format is two dollars off the price it will be after it releases.
What a neat post! You’re a great tour guide!
Thank you for the tour, Hannah!