St. Augustine, FL

We only had a half-day to spend in St. Augustine, Florida, and unfortunately, we did not spend it at Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth. Probably could have used some of that magical elixir, but if it did any real good, I’m sure it would have been all used up by the large numbers of aging snow birds that are now tanning on the beaches of Florida.

St. Augustine was established in 1565 by Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, becoming the oldest permanent European settlement in the continental United States. 




For 235 years it was the political, military and religious capital of the Province of Florida from which Spain exercised jurisdiction over a vast geographical region. The town’s principal value, though, was as a military base for the protection of Spain’s colonial trade and commerce.

Considering our lack of faith in old Ponce’s discovery, we instead spent our time at the Castillo de San Marcos.

The Spaniards built Castillo de San Marcos, finishing it in 1695. It was amazing to me that a structure over 400 years old was not only still standing, but in pretty good condition, as well.

Aerial view of Castillio de San Marcos.

 

Castillo de San Marcos was for many years the northernmost outpost of Spain’s vast New World empire. It is the oldest masonry fort and the best-preserved example of a Spanish colonial fortification in the continental Untied States.

The Castillo protected St. Augustine from pirate raids and from Spain’s major rival, Great Britain, during a time when the Florida-Georgia-Carolina coastline was an explosive international battleground.

The Castillo’s baptism of fire came in 1702 during the War of the Spanish Succession, when the English occupied St. Augustine and unsuccessfully besieged the fort for 50 days.




The English burned the town before they left, but the Castillo emerged unscathed, thereby making it a symbolic link between the old St. Augustine of 1565 and the new city that rose from the ashes.

This is the first fort we have ever seen with a drawbridge and a moat that one has to navigate in order to enter. There was no water in the moat when we were there, but my thought was that water and alligators would certainly have added to defenses of the structure.

Drawbridge into the fort.

A modern-day Spaniard guards the drawbridge.

Moat around the fort.

The fort itself is a hollow square with diamond-shaped bastions at each corner, with only one way in or out. The fort is constructed out of a sedimentary material called Coquina, which is loaded with small seashells and is amazingly strong.




The inside walls are covered in a fairly soft material on which the soldiers from centuries gone by, carved pictures of ships and wrote names and notes that while faint, are still visible today.

Coquina building material.

Soldier's Bunk's.

There were large rooms in the fort for storage, business of the soldiers, sleeping and eating quarters and a dungeon, which looked to me like someplace you would definitely NOT want to spend time.

Door to the Dungeon.

Inside the Dungeon.

Apparently the Spaniards were an art-y bunch, and many of the canons had beautiful designs on them that I found quite fascinating.

Decorative Canons.

The Castillo of course sits right on the water and now, some 400 years later, over looks homes, a modern draw bridge and the city of St. Augustine.

Mortar with the city in the background.

After our time at the fort, we walked across the street to the, “The Colonial Spanish Quarter,” where there were supposed to be era craftsmen. 




This type of thing is always of interest to us, so we headed off. However, although the Colonial Spanish Quarter seemed to go on forever, we found it to be extremely commercialized with no unique craftsmen there at all.

We did spot the oldest “Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse,” which is one of the oldest structures in the city. I also saw it had heavy chains fastened all around it. It's always important to keep old wooden schoolhouses from running away I guess...One would think the anchor would have been enough...