Southern Hill Country

A string of towns along US-90 settled by Alsatians, Poles and Germans, where the architecture is unlike anywhere else in Texas.

Henri Castro brought Alsatian families here in 1844 and they built what they knew — steep-pitched roofs, thick stone walls, houses set square to the street. Castroville has more of that surviving than anywhere in the state, and it looks nothing like the German towns forty miles north.

This is the rim of the Hill Country rather than the middle of it. The hills flatten out toward the coastal plain, the towns sit on one highway, and the distances between them are longer than they look on a map. It is also the least visited part of the region, which is most of the appeal.