The World Heritage Festival to celebrate the San Antonio Missions' World Heritage Designation is on. One event may well change the way you see Mission San Jose.
It’s called Restored By Light, and as Shanon Miller, San Antonio’s director of Historic Preservation explains, it will cause you to see Mission San Jose in a way you never have.
"Exactly. Quite literally. The missions were, when they were originally built, they had very beautiful, painted facades. And those of course have been lost to history, but we have a fairly good understanding of what it may have looked like," Miller says.
And unlike at any other time in history, they can turn that speculation into digital mapping of the Mission, and project that visual onto it.
"We'll be using projection technology to show what the facade may have looked like when it was painted. They were quite elaborate and colorful. Geometric patterns," she says.
Thus the title Restored By Light. It's a family event, with music, stuff for the kids to do, and you can even bring dinner if you want.
"Welcome to bring their own food, but there will be food trucks, but also the church will be doing some grilling, so I think some hamburgers and hot dogs will be available. Also, there's a lot of free parking," Miller says.
Point of fact: parking isn't the only thing that's free.
"Exactly--the whole event's free. All of it's free. Of course, if you purchase anything from a food truck you'll have to pay for that. But the event itself is entirely free."
It's Friday evening down at Mission San Jose and it starts at 6:30 p.m.
"The lighting will occur at dark. Sometime between 8 and 8:30 is our estimate. And then, of course, there are a lot of other events going on the rest of the weekend, related to the World Heritage Festival, so we encourage people to take advantage of those as well," Miller says.
Find more on Restored By Light here.
Find more on the World Heritage Festival here.
