The oldest standing church in Texas, built between 1738 and 1749 by Canary Island colonists brought to San Antonio to establish a permanent civilian settlement. The original building has been expanded and rebuilt, and what stands today is largely a 19th-century Gothic Revival facade grafted onto an older core, but the sanctuary space preserves the original Baroque altar and a sense of genuine age.
San Fernando sits on Main Plaza (Plaza de Armas), at the literal centre of the city — a historical marker on the floor notes the competing claims of Main Plaza and Military Plaza for the title of San Antonio's original civic centre. Free entry; the cathedral is an active parish and often busy with worshippers even on weekday afternoons.