Established in April 1757 on the north bank of the San Saba River near present-day Menard, this presidio was built to garrison and protect the newly founded Santa Cruz de San Saba mission. Under commander Diego Ortiz Parrilla it housed more than 100 soldiers along with their wives and children, functioning as a frontier military post that stored arms, horses, and supplies and, in times of danger, sheltered several hundred civilians from the surrounding area. After Comanche-led raiders destroyed the nearby mission on March 16, 1758, the presidio itself survived, and commander Felipe de Rabago y Teran rebuilt it around 1760 as a stone fortification with bastions, ruins of which still stand. Persistent raiding, cut supply lines, livestock losses, food shortages, and disease eventually made the post untenable, and the garrison abandoned it without authorization in June 1768. The site today is owned by Menard County and preserved as the Presidio de San Saba Historical Site, with day-to-day stewardship by the nonprofit Presidio de San Saba Restoration Corporation. It is open to the public free of charge for self-guided tours using on-site interpretive signage, hosts occasional living-history reenactments by costumed volunteers, and rents a picnic pavilion for community gatherings. Partial wall restoration began in 2011 with a Texas Historical Commission grant, and further phases are planned, so the site's present-day use is archaeological preservation combined with heritage tourism and education.