Goliad State Park & Presidio La Bahía

Goliad: The Mission, the Presidio & the Massacre

9 stops· 11 min· 1.1 mi

A short drive through one of the most beautiful and most heartbreaking places in Texas — Goliad, where a whitewashed Spanish mission and a stone fortress stand a mile apart on the San Antonio River, and where one of the darkest days of the Texas Revolution unfolded. Ranger Quinn walks you through the reconstructed Mission Espíritu Santo, once the greatest cattle ranch in Spanish Texas, and down to Presidio La Bahía, the only fully rebuilt Spanish colonial fort in the Western Hemisphere. Ranger Boone Merrick carries the harder tales, told with the gravity they deserve: the Goliad Massacre of Palm Sunday, 1836, when Colonel Fannin and more than three hundred surrendered men were put to death, and the cry of 'Remember Goliad!' that helped win Texas its freedom; the Angel of Goliad, a Mexican woman who risked everything to save some of them; and a baby born inside these walls who grew up to become the hero of Cinco de Mayo. Come with an open heart — this ground has earned it.