Nuestra Señora del Pilar de los Adaes Presidio

Type: General Entry

Published: 1952

Updated: August 11, 2020

Nuestra Señora del Pilar de los Adaes Presidio was founded in 1721 by the Marqués de Aguayo as a frontier outpost to check French expansion in East Texas. It was located a quarter league from the mission of San Miguel de Linares de los Adaes, near the site of present Robeline, Louisiana. The presidio was built in the form of a hexagon with three bastions, each of which joined two curtains fifty varas long. Six cannons that the Marqués de Aguayo had brought from Coahuila were left in the presidio, which had an initial complement 100 men. The fort was abandoned in 1773, when the East Texas mission field was ordered abandoned after Spain acquired Louisiana.

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Eleanor Claire Buckley, "The Aguayo Expedition in Texas and Louisiana, 1719–1722," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 15 (July 1911). Carlos E. Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936–58; rpt., New York: Arno, 1976). Charles W. Hackett, "The Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo and His Recovery of Texas from the French, 1719–1723," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 49 (October 1945).

Categories:

Exploration
Missions, Presidios, and Camps
Religion
Catholic
Architecture
Missions
Presidios
Pueblos

Time Periods:

Spanish Texas

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

Anonymous, “Nuestra Señora del Pilar de los Adaes Presidio,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 10, 2022, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/nuestra-senora-del-pilar-de-los-adaes-presidio.

Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

Original Publication Date:: 1952
Most Recent Revision Date:: August 11, 2020

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