During the Main Plaza renovation in 2007, archaeologists discovered remnants of a military fortification underneath this street. This entrenchment would have been part of San Antonio's defense against attacks during the turbulent revolutionary period of the early nineteenth century.
Between 1835 and 1842, the City of San Antonio was the site of five major battles between Texian, Tejano, and Mexican forces, including the Siege and Storming of Bexar (1835) and the Battle of the Alamo (1836). These conflicts forever altered San Antonio's people and physical surroundings. The Main Plaza was often at the center of these struggles, serving as a fortified campground for soldiers, a battlefield, and as the target for would be captors on both sides.
Archaeology at this location revealed that the engineers of this fortification built a slope rising from where the San Antonio River is now located at the end of Dolorosa Street up to where you now stand. In this location, they dug a trench in which they would have placed wooden posts to form a palisade.
Behind this wall, they appear to have continued the slope upward where they would have constructed additional fortification, such as a gun battery. Historical accounts verify these fortifications existed at the corners of the [sic] both the Main and Military plazas, and evidence of similar fortifications was found elsewhere, including at the Alamo.
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