San Antonio

The Payaya people lived by the springs of the river, which they called Yanaguana, "refreshing waters". Spanish explorers reached it on 13 June 1691, the feast of St Anthony of Padua, and named it San Antonio. In 1718 Father Antonio de Olivares founded the Misión San Antonio de Valero — later known as the Alamo — with a presidio across the river, to hold Texas against the French. Canary Island families arrived in 1731 and formed San Fernando de Béxar, the first regularly organised civil government in Texas, and four more missions were set up along the river. The town became the capital of Spanish, then Mexican, Texas.

During the Texas Revolution, Texian forces took the town in December 1835. From 23 February to 6 March 1836 the army of Antonio López de Santa Anna besieged the Alamo, and all its defenders were killed; "Remember the Alamo" became the rallying cry of the victory at San Jacinto weeks later. Tejanos such as Juan Seguín fought for independence, but by 1850 they were no longer a majority in the city they had built, and would not be again until 1968.

German immigrants arrived in large numbers in the 19th century, the railway came in 1877 and the city prospered on cattle. After a flood killed 51 people in 1921, the architect Robert Hugman proposed keeping the river's downtown bend as a walk, built from 1939 by the Works Progress Administration. The 1968 World's Fair left the Tower of the Americas, and in 2015 the five missions were inscribed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

San Antonio has had a Tejano majority again since 1968, and its culture blends Mexican and Tejano traditions with those of the German settlers who once made up a third of its people. The old plazas and missions still anchor the city's identity, and the Alamo — "Alamo City" is one of its nicknames — draws visitors from across the country. In 1859 Frederick Law Olmsted wrote of its "jumble of races, costumes, languages and buildings", a quality that only New Orleans could rival.

Fiesta San Antonio, held each April since 1891, is the city's great celebration, with more than 100 events and three million participants commemorating the battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto. In February the Stock Show & Rodeo brings three weeks of livestock judging, rodeo and concerts, and the King William district holds a First Friday art walk each month.

Basketball unites the city behind the Spurs, five-time NBA champions and its only top-level professional team. The military is woven into daily life — San Antonio is nicknamed "Military City, USA" — and in 2017 UNESCO named it a Creative City of Gastronomy, recognising a food culture rooted in its Mexican and Tejano heritage.

San Antonio had about 1.43 million people at the 2020 census, making it the second-largest city in Texas and the seventh-largest in the United States, and its metropolitan area has an estimated 2.76 million. Together with Austin, 80 miles to the north, it anchors a region of about five million people. Its population nearly doubled between 1970 and 2005, through growth and the annexation of new suburbs.

The economy rests on the military, health care, government, business services, oil and gas, and tourism. Lackland and Randolph air force bases, Fort Sam Houston and Brooke Army Medical Center make it one of the country's largest concentrations of military bases, and the South Texas Medical Center lies north- west of downtown. Valero Energy and USAA have their headquarters here, as does H-E-B, the supermarket chain that is one of the largest private companies in the country. Tourism supports more than 130,000 jobs.

The city and its metropolitan area were rated the poorest in 2019, and growth has brought a steady stream of new professional jobs and newcomers, including African Americans moving from the North and West. Summer heat sets the rhythm of the day, and the threat of flash floods is part of life in one of the most flood-prone regions of North America.

San Antonio's cooking grew from its Mexican roots. In the 19th century the "chili queens" sold chili con carne — a spicy beef stew with chilli peppers — from casual "chili joints", and a San Antonio stand at the 1893 world's fair in Chicago gave many Americans their first taste of it; in 1908 Willie Gebhardt, later of San Antonio, produced the first canned chili. Tex-Mex, the Texas version of Mexican cooking, is everywhere, from family taquerías to the cafés of Market Square, the largest Mexican market in the United States, where the café and bakery Mi Tierra is one of the main eateries.

The city's other heritage shows in its German restaurants and the old Pearl and Lone Star breweries; the Pearl's buildings now house restaurants, shops and a weekend farmers' market. San Antonio is also home to the barbecue chain Bill Miller Bar-B-Q and to H-E-B, whose groceries shape what Texans cook at home.

In 2017 UNESCO named San Antonio a Creative City of Gastronomy. Along the River Walk, restaurants and cafés put their tables beside the water, and Tex-Mex restaurants are among the most common, with a German restaurant above the river as a reminder of the city's other roots.