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is a city in Medina County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,664 at the 2000 census. It served as the first county seat for Medina County.
Castroville was established in 1844 by Henri Castro, an empresario of the Republic of Texas, who brought several dozen European families to the area from Alsace and adjoining Baden to populate his land grant along the Medina River 20 miles west of San Antonio. After a few hard years, the town and surrounding farms flourished, although for generations, the residents remained insular. In Castroville's first century, a visitor would be more likely to hear Alsatian — a soft, French-flecked dialect of German — than English spoken in the town's homes, stores and taverns.
Today, though, native speakers of Alsatian are dying out, and fewer of town's residents can trace their ancestry back to the original Castro colonists. The suburbs of nearby San Antonio are encroaching, and much of the town has been made a national historic district to preserve the unique, sloped-roof architecture of dozens of original Alsatian homes and shops.