Since no Europeans were living in this new land, a group of French Protestants, called Huguenots, decided to colonize the land for France. This infuriated King Philip II of Spain; so he quickly dispatched Admiral Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles to Florida to establish a Spanish colony and rid the land of the French trespassers. On August 28, 1565, Menendez landed in La Florida south of the French settlement and named his new colony "San Agustin," which was later changed to St. Augustine.
About this same time, my Great...Great Grandfather sailed his fleet into the French port and found the Huguenots starving from a lack of food and supplies. Since he was on his return to England, he offered to take the Huguenots back to France, but they declined the offer. Instead, they wanted a ship and supplies, but they did not have any money. My Great...Great Grandfather, being the nice guy that he was, then sold the Huguenots a ship and supplies on credit, which they promised the French Government would repay. He then had to sail north to catch fish so that his crew would have enough food for the return trip to England.
A short time later Menendez started his march north toward the French settlement, but he did not realize that the French were sailing south to attack him at the same time. Unfortunately for the French, a large storm destroyed their ship and left about 250 shipwrecked survivors on the beach.
When Mendendez arrived at the French settlement, only a few people were there and the colony was easily destroyed. Mendendez then went looking for the French sailors and when he found them the sailors were hungry and exhausted and did not offer any resistance. St. Augustine was a poor settlement with insufficient provisions to care for 250 prisoners, and since the prisoners were Protestants, not Catholics, Menendez had the sailors "put to the sword" and their bodies were dumped into the bay.
This year, 2015, St. Augustine is celebrating 450 years of colonization and is recognized as the oldest continually inhabited city by Europeans in the United States. Time for a RonnieAdventure!
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| Photographer Unknown |
After completion of the fort, St. Augustine was attacked several more times, but no attacker was ever able to take the Castillo. Then, to protect the City, St. Augustine became a presidio (walled city), with only one way in-and-out. After becoming a presidio, no attacker was ever able to destroy the city again.
In 1908, the city decided to tear down the presidio gate pillars because they were an "eyesore," but the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) dressed in funeral clothes and surrounded the pillars. The ladies served tea and cakes to all passers-by and eventually gained the support of the community to save the gate pillars, the only remaining part of the presidio.
St. George Street, the oldest street in the United states, is the street that was used to enter the presidio and has now been converted into a pedestrian mall. The oldest wooden school house in the United States is located on St. George Street, along with 24 other buildings that have been restored or reconstructed.
Located on Fort Alley (just off St. George Street) is the Pirate and Treasure Museum that contains "the largest authentic collection of pirate artifacts in the world," along with some heavily guarded real treasures. As part of the collection, the museum has the "World's Only Surviving Pirate Treasure Chest" that is over 400 years old and weighs 150 pounds. Jack Sparrow's sword and ring are also on display, along with some other Hollywood memorabilia.
Since parking is very limited in the St. Augustine Historic District, we found it convenient to just leave our car in the free parking lot at the Old Town Trolley Main Depot and just get on-or-off of the Trolley at one of the 23 different stops. In addition to the Trolley Main Depot, Old Town also contains "The Old Jail" (built in 1891 by the same company that later constructed Alcatraz), "The Oldest Store Museum" (arranged to look and feel like it did in the late 1800s), "St. Augustine History Museum" (contains a 1,000 year-old Timucuan Indian Canoe), "The Spice & Tea Exchange" (smells great!), and "Gator Bob's Gift Shop and Penny Arcade."
Located just down the street (in the Howard Johnson Hotel parking lot) is the "Old Senator" Tree, which is St. Augustine's "Oldest Living Citizen." This large live oak tree is 13 feet in circumference and is more than 600 years old. If you look closely, you can see that there is a palm tree growing in the center of the tree about 10 feet off of the ground.
Magnolia Avenue is located behind the Howard Johnson Hotel and was named "One of the Ten Most Beautiful Streets in the United States" by National Geographic Magazine. A canopy of branches has formed over the street and hanging from the branches is a profusion of "Spanish Moss." However, the gray, stringy plant is neither Spanish nor a moss. It is just another plant of the Bromeliaceae family. Although Spanish Moss is attractive to look at, it is loaded with red bugs and chiggers. Henry Ford used Spanish Moss in some of his first Model T's to stuff the seats, causing the first automotive recall in US History.
The fence along Magnolia Street is made from Coquina, a conglomerate formed in the ocean from limestone and fossilized shells. Between the fence and the ocean is the "Fountain of Youth Park."
The Fountain of Youth Park is the site of many archaeological discoveries, include a Timucuan Indian Village (a replica of the village has been reconstructed using native materials), indications of an early Spanish settlement (various monuments have been constructed on the site, along with a collection of Spanish Tinajones (large clay jars), a pirate lookout tower, and there are live canon firings every hour), and a "Fountain of Youth Spring" and displays. There is also a monument with flags from the five different countries that have governed this area. The Mission of Nombre de Dios is located adjacent to the Park and contains a statue of Father Lopez and the largest cross in the World ("The Great Cross" or "Beacon of Faith").
Ripley's Believer it or Not Museum is located in the old Warden Castle near the historic downtown area. The castle was built in 1887 by William Warden, a business partner of Henry Flagler and John D. Rockefeller. In 1941 the Castle was remodeled and converted into a hotel by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and then sold to the Ripley Foundation in 1950. The Castle contains a collection of weird and bizarre objects, plus there are a number of free exhibits in front of the building; i.e. "End of the Trail" sculpture, chrome horse made from car bumpers, 4-room house hand-carded from a 1900 year-old 14-foot diameter red wood tree, and the replica of Michelangelo's David that was sculptured by the Sollazzini & Sons' Studios of Florence, Italy for the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. This David sculpture is "one of only two copies in the world carved to the exact specifications as the original - 17' high and weighing 10 tons - and from one solid piece of Carrara marble excavated from the exact same quarry - Fantiscritti, in Miseglia, Tuscany - as Michelangelo's masterpiece."
Located across the street from Ripley's is the St. Augustine Visitor Center that was constructed in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Located in the Visitor Center courtyard is a Spanish Trail Marker that was erected in 1928, which marks the Zero Milestone as the eastern end of the Old Spanish Trail - the first transcontinental road from St. Augustine, Florida, to San Diego, California. Also located in the courtyard is the Fuente de los Canos de San Francisco, a set of masks that were a gift to the City of St. Augustine by its sister city Aviles in Spain to commemorate the birthplace of Pedro Menendez.
The Plaza de la Constitucion (located on the south side of Cathedral Place) contains a number of monuments, plaques, and historic markers. The Basilica de St. Augustine, the Catholic Cathedral located across the street from the park, is the oldest congregation of any denomination in the United States. It dates from September 8, 1565.
During the Christmas holiday season the City offers nightly trolley tours of the Christmas lights in the St. Augustine Historic Area. After the tour, there are complimentary sugar cookies and hot apple cider to warm you up, so that you can walk around the historic area and spend some of your hard-earned money. Come early because the tours fill up quickly!
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