On February 14, 1719, the Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo proposed to the king of Spain that 400 families be transported from the Canary Islands, Galicia, or Havana to populate the province of Texas. On May 5, 1718, he commissioned the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar ("Béjar" in modern Spanish orthography) on the west side of the San Antonio River, one-fourth league from the mission. On May 1, the governor transferred ownership of the Mission San Antonio de Valero (later famous as The Alamo) to Fray Antonio de Olivares. The families who clustered around the presidio and mission were the start of Villa de Béjar, destined to become the most important town in Spanish Texas. Olivares built, with the help of the Payaya and the Pastia Indians, the Misión de San Antonio de Valero (The Alamo), the Presidio San Antonio de Bexar, the bridge that connected both, and the Acequia Madre de Valero. Differences between Alarcón and Olivares resulted in delays, and construction did not start until 1718. He directed Martín de Alarcón, the governor of Coahuila y Tejas, to establish the mission complex. The viceroy gave formal approval for a combined mission and presidio in late 1716, as he wanted to forestall any French expansion into the area from their colony of La Louisiane to the east, as well as prevent illegal trading with the Payaya. Father Antonio de Olivares visited the site in 1709, and he was determined to found a mission and civilian settlement there. It was years before any Spanish settlement took place. San Antonio is also the largest majority-Hispanic city in the United States, with 64% of its population being Hispanic. San Antonio is home to four Fortune 500 companies and the South Texas Medical Center, the only medical research and care provider in the South Texas region. Lackland Air Force Base, Randolph Air Force Base, Kelly Air Force Base, Camp Bullis, and Camp Stanley are outside the city limits. Armed Forces have numerous facilities in and around San Antonio Fort Sam Houston is the only one within the city limits.
It is home to the five-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, and hosts the annual San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, one of the largest such events in the U.S. According to the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau, the city is visited by about 32 million tourists a year. Commercial entertainment includes Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Morgan's Wonderland amusement parks. Other notable attractions include the River Walk, the Tower of the Americas, SeaWorld, the Alamo Bowl, and Marriage Island. The city contains five 18th-century Spanish frontier missions, including The Alamo and San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, which together were designated UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2015. San Antonio was named by a 1691 Spanish expedition for the Portuguese priest Saint Anthony of Padua, whose feast day is June 13. Some observers expect the two metropolitan regions to form a new metroplex similar to Dallas and Fort Worth. Downtown San Antonio and Downtown Austin are approximately 80 miles (129 km) apart, both falling along the Interstate 35 corridor. Straddling the regional divide between South and Central Texas, San Antonio anchors the southwestern corner of an urban megaregion colloquially known as the Texas Triangle.
census estimates, making it the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the United States and third-largest in Texas. Commonly called the Greater San Antonio, the metropolitan area had a population of 2,550,960 based on the 2019 U.S. The city of San Antonio serves as the seat of Bexar County San Antonio is the center of the San Antonio–New Braunfels metropolitan statistical area. The city was the fastest-growing of the top ten largest cities in the United States from 2000 to 2010, and the second from 1990 to 2000. It is the state's oldest municipality, having celebrated its 300th anniversary on May 1, 2018. The area was still part of the Spanish Empire, and later of the Mexican Republic. Founded as a Spanish mission and colonial outpost in 1718, the city became the first chartered civil settlement in present-day Texas in 1731. San Antonio ( / ˌ s æ n æ n ˈ t oʊ n i oʊ/ SAN an- TOH-nee-oh Spanish for " Saint Anthony"), officially the City of San Antonio, is the seventh-most populous city in the United States, second largest city in the Southern United States, and the second-most populous city in Texas as well as the 12th most populous city in North America with 1,434,625 residents in 2020.