preserv.

Founded in 1720, this mission was named for Saint Joseph and the Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo, the governor of the Province of Coahuila and Texas at the time. It was built on the banks of the San Antonio River and founded  by Father Antonio Margil de Jesús.

The church is architecturally significant as physical evidence of building practices and techniques used during the Spanish colonial period. It is the least altered of all the Texas mission churches and has the only original dome of those in San Antonio.