Presidio La Bahia began as a Spanish military garrison, first established in 1721 near Matagorda Bay and relocated twice before settling permanently at its present Goliad site in 1749. For nearly a century it functioned as a working fort: a company of roughly 50 soldiers, often with their families, was quartered there to protect two neighboring missions, guard horse and cattle herds, escort supply trains between San Antonio and San Juan Bautista, and defend against Karankawa, Comanche, and Apache raids, while also monitoring the coast for shipwrecks, piracy, and encroaching English or French traders. A chapel inside the walls served the garrison's religious needs. During the Mexican War of Independence and later the Texas Revolution, the presidio changed hands repeatedly; Texian forces captured it in 1835, Colonel James Fannin refortified it as "Fort Defiance," and the Goliad Declaration of Independence was signed there before Mexican General Jose de Urrea's troops executed roughly 342 captured Texan prisoners nearby on March 27, 1836, the Goliad Massacre. Afterward the fort fell into ruin, briefly serving as a private residence before reverting to the Catholic Diocese. Restoration in the 1930s and a major 1960s reconstruction under architect Raiford Stripling recreated the presidio using period records. Today it operates as a state historic site with a museum in the officers' quarters, an active chapel still used for services and weddings, and is a major heritage-tourism destination; the Texas Historical Commission completed acquisition of the site in 2025.