Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church
Independence Trail Region
In 1793, Spanish friars built their last Texas mission nearly 30 miles northwest of here. Two years later, Nuestra Señora del Refugio (Our Lady of Refuge) Mission was relocated to present-day Refugio. Karankawa resistance and Comanche raids closed the mission in 1824. Irish immigrants of the 1830s rebuilt the mission church and named the town Refugio. A 1901 Gothic Revival incarnation of Our Lady of Refuge Church sits on the original mission site.