15658 September 1565 · St. Augustine, Florida
Founding of St. Augustine and Spanish Florida
On 8 September 1565 Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed beside the Timucua town of Seloy and founded St. Augustine to hold Florida for Spain. Within weeks he seized the French Huguenot colony of Fort Caroline and had hundreds of shipwrecked French soldiers killed at Matanzas Inlet. Guarded from the 1670s by the coquina Castillo de San Marcos, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-founded city in the continental United States.
Sites
- Site 1: Fountain of Youth Archaeological ParkWaterfront grounds on the site of Seloy and Menéndez's first settlement, with excavations.Map ↗
- Site 2: Mission Nombre de DiosGrounds of the 1565 landing and first Mass, marked by a tall steel cross.Map ↗
- Site 3: Castillo de San Marcos National MonumentStar-shaped coquina fort of 1672–1695 on the bayfront.Map ↗
- Site 4: Fort Matanzas National MonumentSmall 1740s coquina watchtower near the inlet where the French were killed.Map ↗
Guides who take you there
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Also in St. Augustine
More from the Renaissance & Early Modern
Read more: reference. Summary written by History-Tours.com.