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300 Alamo Plaza

San Antonio, TX 78205

Open Hours

Open today 9 a.m to 5:30 p.m

Cannons with
Incredible Histories

The Cannon Arcade at the Alamo.

Newly restored and sheltered from the Texas sun, the Alamo's cannon now line the arches of the arcade. Each cannon is the "real deal" - a genuine historic artifact, not a replica. Many of these incredible guns were used during the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 and show the scars of combat. 

As you walk down the arcade you might notice that some of the cannons appear damaged. This is part of their history. After the Battle of San Jacinto, the Mexican soldiers still in San Antonio were ordered to destroy the Alamo's cannons so that the Texans could not use them again.

Conservation in Action

An Alamo cannon undergoing conservation at Texas A&M University.

In 2017, the Alamo partnered with Texas A&M University's Conservation Research Lab (CRL) to restore and conserve seven historic Alamo battle cannons.

These cannons had not been conserved in over 50 years and this was their first treatment of any kind other than routine painting. Numerous layers of paint and corrosion were removed by CRL through an electrolytic reduction process. This process discovered details of wear on the cannons, revealing more about how they were used.

The team at Texas A&M University discovered that some of the cannons were cast in Great Britain and north Wales. They also found out some were typically guns for the merchant and civilian markets.

This conservation effort even discovered two unfired cannon balls!