The beginnings of Saint Augustine

The King of Spain named Spanish Admiral Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles Governor of Florida and instructed him to explore and colonize the territory. In 1565 the Admiral and his men founded Saint Augustine, which is 42 years earlier than the English colony at Jamestown, Virginia and 55 years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. This makes Saint Augustine the oldest permanent European settlement on the North American Continent.

The construction of the Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the US, started in 1672. It is build of coquina, a type of shell stone indigenous to the area and quarried from Anastasia Island.