The story begins in 1740 when the Franciscans hired a young mason, Antonio Tello, to build stone churches at all the missions except for Mission San Jose. He must have been a man of great energy because not only is he credited with starting large churches at those four missions, he is even credited by some as having built the Espada Aqueduct, the only one of its kind in the U.S. that spans Piedras Creek, At Mission Espada, he had installed the massive stone foundation needed to support the stone building to come, started a sacristy, and had carved the stones for the door to this large church. He was also having an affair with a woman named Rosa Guerra. Unfortunately Rosa was married to a man named Mathius Trevino who had been away on a trip to Mexico. When he came home he found out about the affair, forgave his wife, and told Tello to never speak to her again. A few days later, Tello lured Trevino out in the woods after dark with the promise of the gift of a young calf to show how sorry he was. Suddenly, Tello pulls out a pistol, shoots Trevino point blank in the side, beats him over the head with it, and leaves him to die.
Unfortunately for Tello, Trevino did not die right away and was able to drag himself back to a friends house. The Alcalde (judge) was called as well as a scribe and what followed was a very thorough murder investigation that would easily stand up in court today. It was carefully written down, carefully archived, and carefully translated into English (click action button to see a copy).. When it was finally determined that Tello was guilty and they went to arrest him, he had left town and was never heard from again.
The immediate fallout was that all work on all of the large stone churches came to a screeching halt. At Espada, the friars completed the sacristy the following year which included large beams in the back to support a choir loft. The planned large church never got beyond the foundation stage and the original sacristy served as the mission church for more than 40 years. Around 1785, a man named Antonio Salazar transformed the 38 foot sacristy with an offset front door (see above picture) into the 60 foot long church with an espadana (bell tower) and the unusual doorway we see today.
Although often referred to as the "Moorish Doorway", close inspection over the years has led some to believe that perhaps those stones were not put in the same order that Tello had intended. This website will explore that mysterious arch.
The murder of Matias Trevino by Antonio Tello in 1744 set into play a series of events that would change the architectural history of the San Antonio Missions forever. The button below will take you to the translation of the actual murder investigation done by the town Alcalde (Judge)
The current configuration has always been referred to as a Moorish Arch and as seen in the next photo it looks very much like that.
A Herradura arch in Southern Spain
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