St. Augustine’s most historically significant structure is the Castillo de San Marcos, a fort constructed by the Spanish between 1672 and 1695.The need to fortify the tiny garrison town was understood as early as 1586, when it was attacked by Sir Francis Drake, an English corsair whose fleet of twenty ships and two thousand men sacked and burned the town.Later, in 1668, the English pirate Robert Searles assaulted and plundered the settlement. At the same time the threat of English colonization in the north had significantly increased, and Queen Mariana of Spain authorized the construction of a stone fortification.The fort was built of coquina, a type of shell stone indigenous to the area and quarried from Anastasia Island.The Castillo has never been conquered despite attacks by English General James Oglethorpe who attempted to subdue the town in 1740. Firing from the tip of Anastasia Island, he found his cannonballs were no match for the unusual consistency of coquina which absorbed the blast rather than crumbling.
Shortly after Florida became a territory of the United States, the fort was renamed Fort Marion in honor of Revolutionary War General Francis Marion. It retained that name from 1825 to 1942, when the Castillo appellation was restored.In the 1870s and 1880s, the fort housed Indians detained by the U.S. Government. The Castillo and Fort Matanzas have been under the auspices of the National Park Service since 1933. The fort is open to the public daily, except for Christmas.
Construction of Castillo de San Marcos
The European city of St. Augustine was founded by the admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés for theSpanish Crown in 1565 on the site of a former Native American village. Over the next 100 years, the Spanish built nine wooden forts for the defense of the town in various locations. The need for fortifications was recognized after it was attacked by Sir Francis Drake and his fleet of 20 ships in 1586. Following the 1668 attack of the English pirate Robert Searle, Mariana Queen Regent of Spain, approved the construction of a masonry fortification to protect the city.The Castillo de San Marcos is a masonry star fort made of a stone called coquina, Spanish for “small shells”, made of ancient shells that have bonded together to form a type of stone similar to limestone. Workers were brought in from Havana, Cuba, to construct the fort in addition to Native American laborers. The coquina was quarried from the ‘King’s Quarry’ on Anastasia Island in what is today Anastasia State Park acrossMatanzas Bay from the Castillo, and ferried across to the construction site. Construction began on October 2, 1672 and lasted twenty-three years, with completion in 1695.The fort has four bastions named San Pedro, San Agustín, San Carlos and San Pablo with a ravelin protecting the sally port. Castillo de San Marcos is a Beautiful Place For Vacations. On the two landward sides a large glacis was constructed which would force any attackers to advance upward toward the fort’s cannon and allow the cannon shot to proceed downslope for greater efficiency in hitting multiple targets. Immediately surrounding the fort was a moat which could be flooded to a depth of a foot during high-tide with seawater from Matanzas Bay prior to an attack via the use of floodgates built into the seawall.Multiple embrasures were built into the curtain wall along the top of the fort as well as into the bastions for the deployment of cannon of various calibers. Infantry embrasures were also built into the walls below the level of the terreplein for the deployment ofmuskets by the fort’s defenders. It was through one of these embrasures that twenty Seminoles held as prisoners would escape in 1837.
Architecture & Construction
The Monument site consists of 20.5 acres and includes a reconstructed section of the walled defense line surrounding the city of St. Augustine incorporating the original city gate. The Castillo de San Marcos’ architecture and detail are distinctive and unique. It is the oldest masonry and only extant 17th century fort in North America. As such it is an excellent example of the “bastion system” of fortification.
Arms & Armament
The 16th century colonization of America paralleled the development of new weaponry. This technology centered on black powder (gunpowder) based systems Travel Advice in USA. The cannon, first made of iron, later of bronze, became the weapon of political power projection and, along with small arms of various types, began to dominate the battlefields of both Europe and the New World.
Directions
The Castillo de San Marcos National Monument is located in downtown St. Augustine, Florida. St. Augustine is located on Florida’s Northeastern Atlantic coast about midway between Jacksonville and Daytona Beach.Nearby Jacksonville and Daytona are served by international airports with easy access to I-95. Rental cars are available at the airports and also in St. Augustine.From I-95: Take the exit for St. Augustine Historic Sites and Downtown (Route 16, Exit 318). Follow Rt. 16 to US 1. Turn right on US 1 for approximately one mile to West Castillo Drive. Turn left on West Castillo de San Marcos to the traffic light. Turn right at the light. The Castillo de San Marcos and parking are ahead on the left.