San Antonio
city in Bexar, Comal, and Medina counties in Texas, United States; seat of Bexar County
San Antonio ( SAN an-TOH-nee-oh; Spanish for "Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the seventh-most populous city in the United States, the second-most populous city in Texas (after Houston), and the second-most populous city in the Southern U.S., with a population of 1.43 million at the 2020 census. The Greater San Antonio metropolitan area, with an estimated 2.76 million residents, ranks as the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest in the nation. It is the county seat of Bexar County.
The area was named "San Antonio" in 1691 by a Spanish expedition in honor of Saint Anthony of Padua. A Spanish mission and colonial outpost was founded there in 1718, and San Antonio became the first chartered civil settlement in present-day Texas in 1731. It was part of the Spanish Empire, then the Mexican Republic from 1821 to 1836, before joining the United States after the annexation of the Republic of Texas in 1846. 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. It lies about 80 miles (130 km) from Austin along the I-35 corridor, and together, the San Antonio–Austin metroplex is home to approximately 5 million people.
San Antonio is home to five 18th-century Spanish frontier missions, including The Alamo and those preserved in San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, which were collectively designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2015.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “San Antonio” as city in Bexar, Comal, and Medina counties in Texas, United States; seat of Bexar County. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as city in Bexar, Comal, and Medina counties in Texas, United States; seat of Bexar County. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q975. VIAF identifies the subject as 153426020. The Library of Congress control number is n79054641. Authority coordinates are 29.425, -98.494. 5 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1691, 1718 and 1731.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “San Antonio”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow San Antonio primary sources, San Antonio archive and Antonio research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “San Antonio”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “San Antonio” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.