Presidio of San Sabá

Italy

The Presidio of San Sabá was the second presidio established at the site of present-day Menard, Texas on the San Saba River. The first was the Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas, established by Colonel Diego Ortiz Parrilla in April 1757, the same time that Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá was also fou

nded by Fr. Alonso Giraldo de Terreros some three miles downstream. Initially, both the presidio and mission were enclosed by a wooden stockade. About 2,000 Comanche and Wichita warriors attacked and destroyed the mission March 16, 1758, but did not attack the presidio. Colonel Parrilla led a punitive expedition against the hostiles about one year later, but was defeated in the Battle of the Twin Villages at a large Wichita village on the Red River. Colonel Parrilla was relieved of command as a consequence of this setback and replaced by Captain Felipe de Rábago y Terán. Captain Rábago immediately undertook replacing the temporary wooden stockade with a permanent stone structure. The new presidio was a 300-by-360-foot (91 by 110 m) rectangle surrounded by walls 5 feet (1.5 m) thick and rising to a height of 15 to 20 feet (4.6 to 6.1 m) with two watch towers armed with six small cannons. The...

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Real Presidio de San Saba monumenti