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Published: April 16th 2010
Castillo de San Marcos
Built in the 17th Century. The moat is now grass.On my way up the coast to St. Augustine, I stopped in to visit a friend in Titusville. We had a lovely lunch of rock shrimp, which look and taste like tiny lobsters. Very tasty. Titusville is on the Florida Space Coast and Cape Kennedy is just across the bay.
Bobby’s parents, Jeanie and Bob, have always told me that I would love Saint Augustine and they are right. Saint Augustine renewed my faith that Florida does indeed have a future!
In 1513 Juan Ponce de Leon arrived in Florida from Puerto Rica (known then as San Juan,) and claimed Florida for Spain. He arrived in St. Augustine during the Easter season when all the flowers were in bloom so he called the new land La Florida. St. Augustine is the oldest settled colony in the United States. There were of course, Native Americans there for a long time before the Europeans but the Spanish expeditions of the New World really were dominant in the 16th Century. Spanish exploration of the Americas discovered gold and silver in Mexico and Peru, the treasure was sent back to Spain in ships sailing in the Gulf Stream. Spanish settlements needed to be built in
Castillo
The Castillo was built of coquina which is a locally quarried soft shellrock. It is apparently becomes very hard Florida to protect the Spanish fleet. The original fort, San Juan De Aviles was built in 1565 but destroyed by those pesky English led by Sir Francis Drake in 1586. Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales celebrated the first Mass in St. Augustine on September 8th, 1565. The Nobre De Dios Mission was built, and was serving Spanish settlers and Native Americans by 1615. The original mission building is long gone, forgotten hurricanes, and struggles to dominate Florida by pirates, the Spanish, French, and those pesky English, took their toll. Construction of a more substantial fort was begun in 1672, it took 23 years to complete, and was named the Castillo de San Marcos. In 1702 English troops from South Carolina invaded St. Augustine and the fifteen hundred Spanish settlers retreated to the Castillo refused to surrender. England finally defeated Spain in the Seven Years War and Florida was transferred to English control in 1763. In the years following the Florida peninsula was tossed around between England and France until 1821 when the United States took over. Florida became the 27th state of the Union in 1845.
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Jan and Garth
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Hey Traveller!
Thanks for your continued newsy blogs, Lynn St Augustine looks like it will be a destination sometime soon! I love the idea of clean beaches where dogs are still allowed! Bron and Sheba have never been in the ocean...only our local lakes and they love those! Tons of love to you and little Ike - I laughed at his pic in the waves - poor Baby!