Dating to 1840, Market Square (El Mercado), the largest Mexican marketplace north of the Rio Grande, is a festive combination of Tex-Mex cuisine, music, entertainment, products ranging from pearls to piñatas, and the anchor Centro de Artes.

Legendary Architecture
Explore Spanish colonial architecture at San Antonio’s five 18th-century mission. Among them is the Alamo, which has become permanently etched in the annals of history. In 1836, 189 defenders of Texas independence held The Alamo against some 4,000 Mexican troops for 13 days. Four other Spanish colonial missions founded in the early 1700s form the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park—a marvelous place to explore the city’s roots and Spain’s influence on the southwestern part of the United States. The visitor center at Mission San José is an excellent starting point. Drive from mission to mission or take the Mission Reach portion of the River Walk, perfect for hiking and biking. The Alamo along with the four Spanish colonial missions were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the first in Texas.

Museums
The San Antonio Museum of Art is housed in a castle-like building that was formerly the Lone Star Brewery. This museum is noted for its antiquities collections and the 30,000 square-foot Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art—the largest repository of its kind. The Lenora and Walter F. Brown Asian Art Wing offers 15,000 square feet of galleries dedicated to the museum’s Asian art collection that spans nearly 6,000 years of history.

The Witte Museum is San Antonio’s premiere museum of South Texas history, culture, and natural science. Located on the banks of the San Antonio River, the Witte offers permanent exhibits that include dinosaur skeletons, cave drawings, wildlife dioramas, and several historic homes. Changing galleries include Texas artists, textiles, and showcase exhibits. A recent $100 million renovation to the Smithsonian-affiliated museum included major expansions to popular attractions and collections as well as completely new labs, exhibits, and galleries.

The Smithsonian-affiliated Institute of Texan Cultures, located in Hemisfair, chronicles more than 25 ethnic groups that made the Lone Star State what it is today. Their stories are told through words, photos, and fascinating displays that include eclectic items such as a Native American teepee, an old-time barbershop, a frontier dentist’s office, a town square band gazebo, an African-American sharecropper’s house, and even a working post office.