Long-hidden frescoes reveal new reason to remember the Alamo

SAN ANTONIO - Just when you think there's nothing left to know about the Alamo, another secret surfaces.

Alamo officials have discovered 18th-century frescoes on the walls of the old mission's sacristy. Hidden for years under layers of grime and whitewash, they are in stunningly vibrant colors.

The frescoes may be the most significant find of Spanish mission-era decorative work in Texas. They also pose a mystery or two. How could these delicate friezes and borders have survived about 260 years of battles, neglect and renovation? Or how could they remain hidden so long inside one of the most visited historical sites in the nation?

"It caught us all pretty much by surprise," Alamo curator Brad Breuer said of the February discovery. It began, he said, with a conservation program started this year by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas to make the Alamo more historically accurate and to better resemble a shrine.

The work involved removal of 60-year-old bronze plaques from the walls of the sanctuary, visited by about 2 million people a year. In the adjoining sacristy, which had been closed to the public, an aging collection of flags representing the home states and nations of the Alamo heroes was being removed when the frescoes were noticed.

"We don't know how long the sacristy has been closed. No one alive remembers it ever being open. That day, we were in the room, trying to figure out where to put the lighting for some exhibits," Breuer said. "Someone saw a little bit of color on the wall. Soon enough, we realized we had a stunning collection of Spanish-era frescoes in a room that had no written record of any artwork existing."

The Daughters, custodians of the Alamo for nearly 100 years, called in Cici Jary and Pam Rosser, a mother-daughter team of art conservators, to undertake stabilization and conservation work. Their San Antonio firm, Restoration Associates, has performed similar work at two other historic San Antonio missions and Galveston's Moody mansion.

"It's a big, big puzzle," Jary said. "But a wonderful one. You walk into a room like this and just get lost in the possibilities."

It's hard to see at first what's causing all the fuss. To the untrained eye, the sacristy's limestone walls bear a striking resemblance to a motley collection of plaster, whitewash and 20th-century concrete patches.

Under the glare of work lights, however, spots of colors emerge from the ancient walls like ghosts. Splashes of orange, red and pale green form patterns. Finely detailed flowers and pomegranates and geometric designs stand out from the beige walls as long-hidden gifts from the past.

The paintings are of a traditional Spanish style known as fresco seco, Jary said. The colors were painted into damp plaster so the design becomes part of the surface when it dries. Still visible are the guidelines artisans marked in the plaster. They measure one vara, a colonial Spanish measurement of about 33 inches.

The Alamo frescoes appear more plentiful and more complex than decorative designs at San Antonio's four other missions, Jary said. "The painting here is very fine and precise," she said. "The academic investigation hasn't begun yet, but it appears there is a greater concentration of wall painting at the Alamo than at the other missions."

If anything, Jary and the Daughters are restrained in their enthusiasm, said Rosalind Rock, chief historian for the National Park Service's San Antonio Mission Park.

"It is quite a discovery. The entire sacristy area apparently was lavishly decorated at one time," Rock said. "It's very exciting to see the remnants of the paintings. It's amazing that anything is left at all."

Unlike the other missions, the walls inside the Alamo have never been replastered. In covering the walls with whitewash, the Army helped preserve the mission artwork, Rosser said.

"That and the air conditioning added by the Daughters are probably what saved them," she said.

Franciscans founded the Alamo at Mission San Antonio de Valero in 1718. Construction on the present location, on the east bank of the San Antonio River, began in May 1744.

The missions were secularized in 1793, and the Alamo became a military fortress for Spanish troops. After Mexico's successful revolt, Mexican troops occupied the old mission grounds from 1803 to December 1835, when Gen. Perfecto de Cos surrendered to forces of the Texas revolution.

A ragtag garrison of about 200 Texans gathered at the Alamo in February 1836 to defend the city against the superior Mexican forces. The 13-day siege ended March 6, 1836, with the slaughter of the defenders.

After the battle, Mexican soldiers burned the Alamo structures to prevent them from being used as a fortress again. The Alamo lay in ruins until Texas joined the union in 1848. The U.S. Army turned the chapel into a quartermaster depot. Army engineers added the curved top over the front facade that has made the Alamo one of the most recognized buildings in the world.