The stone fort — the only fully reconstructed Spanish colonial presidio in the Western Hemisphere — and its Loreto chapel.
And here is the presidio — Nuestra Señora de Loreto, but everyone calls it La Bahía, 'the bay,' from its first home down on the coast. Take it in: this is the only fully reconstructed Spanish colonial fort in the entire Western Hemisphere, restored right down to how it looked in eighteen thirty-six, with its thick stone walls, its cannon, its parade ground, and at its heart the beautiful little Our Lady of Loreto chapel, still in use after nearly three centuries.
A soldier has stood watch on this spot since the seventeen hundreds, when Spain, and then Mexico, held this land. This fort guarded the road between the Texas missions and the sea, and it saw flag after flag — Spanish, Mexican, and for a brief and bloody while, the flag of a new Texas. Walk the walls, step into the cool of the chapel, and stand in the courtyard — because in that courtyard, one terrible Palm Sunday, the event happened that made the name Goliad ring across Texas forever. Boone will tell it to you. It deserves your full attention.
Photo: Ernest Mettendorf · Public domain
