San Fernando Cathedral is undergoing some major renovations for the first time in two decades.
The project to place a new copper roof on the 1700s church should be completed by mid-March. The previous one lasted half a century.
Father Carlos Velasquez, the cathedral's rector, said insurance is covering the work that began this past June.
The roof over the main part of the cathedral is done. Now comes the work on the copper roofs and the louvers on the two bell towers, which provide ventilation to the upper sections of the cathedral. Its two distinctive bell towers are one of the city's best-known landmarks.
Velasquez said the roof has leaked since it was damaged in a pre-pandemic hailstorm.
He added that he thinks holes found in the roof may have come from a time when guns were fired in the air as part of big celebrations, including all the Fiestas and New Year's Eve parties over the past two centuries.
"We understand that often times people in the downtown area like to celebrate by shooting their gun, handgun, which is not safe at all because whatever goes up has to come down," he said.
Then there's the Battle of the Alamo itself, when lead filled the air in 1836. The cathedral had already been around for nearly 90 years when the battle began.
Valasquez said staffers looked forward to the end of the project because scaffolding has made the cathedral less appealing for weddings and has interrupted the lighted projection of the story "Saga" on its stone facade. "Saga" tells the story of San Antonio's historical development. The cathedral hosts dozens of weddings a year.
Rick Hererra, the sheet metal manager of the American Metal and Roofing Company, is managing the project through contractor SLK Construction. He said he's not too sure some of the holes were caused by bullets.
"There are holes. It could be hit by anything. ... [R]estoration of that stone has been done in the past, so it's hard to say," he said.
Herrera said the work is more complicated than other copper roofing projects because of the historical significance of the cathedral.
Mexican forces posted a lookout at the top of the church during the 1836 siege of and battle for the Alamo. They also hoisted a red flag to warn that no mercy would be shown toward the Alamo defenders.
"We've got to get the approval from the Texas Historical Commission, and I have to send before and after pictures showing that everything is matching what was there before," Herrera said.
He said skilled artisans at his company are working hard to match the work done by artisans centuries before.
