SAN ANTONIO – A big party was held at the Alamo Tuesday to celebrate the historic San Antonio Missions, which made Texas history over the weekend by being granted a World Heritage Site designation.
City leaders and San Antonians shared in the excitement over the UNESCO designation.
"(It's) a celebration of our culture, celebration of our history, celebration of these archeological treasures that we have, so we should all feel good about that," said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff.
Wolff, along with Mayor Ivy Taylor, was in Germany for the big announcement which was made Sunday. They returned to San Antonio late Monday in time for Tuesday's celebration.
San Antonio is the only city in Texas to have a UNESCO World Heritage Site, making us a world-class city.
"With this designation, San Antonio joins the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty (and the) Taj Mahal in India, and that's pretty cool that my hometown is represented out there," said U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Dist. 23, a San Antonio native.
"A lot more people are going to learn about the history of South Texas and the role that the missions have played in the development of this region," Hurd said.
For (the U.S. being) such a young country, South Texas has lots of history to share with the world, Taylor said.
She said Texans should be proud of our heritage and culture in anticipation of welcoming even more visitors to the city.
"I hope that even more people that actually live here -- beyond just the tourists, but people that live here -- will appreciate how extraordinary our city is," Taylor said.
Taylor said the next step is for the San Antonio City Council to look into whether infrastructure improvements need to be done around the Missions, so the city can highlight them the best we can.