After getting a map and information at the Visitor Center, we decided we would visit the Castillo de San Marcos National Historic Monument first. This was our first National Park visit of 2014. Of Course, our admission was free with our Annual Parks Pass. :) Tafanie had just given me a National Parks "Passport" book for my birthday. I got my first stamp in the book today.
Before giving you the tour of Castillo de San Marcos, let me give you a very quick history of St. Augustine to help understand the importance and significance of the fort.
1492: Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered the "New World" or the Americas.
1513: Ponce de Leon claims Florida for Spain.
1564: France gains the first foothold establishing Fort Caroline (near where Jacksonville is today).
1565: Don Pedro Menedez de Aviles of Spain establishes St. Augustine and proceeds to destroy the French Fort Caroline with the help of a tropical storm.
1586: Sir Francis Drake of England burned St. Augustine.
1668: British pirates ransack St. Augustine.
1672-1695: The Castillo de San Marcos is constructed made of a unique sedimentary rock called Coquina.
1702: The Castillo is besieged for 50 days and comes out unscathed although the British burned St. Augustine.
1740: The British again besiege the Castillo but give up and go home after 38 days.
1763: Treaty between Great Britain and Spain gives Florida to Great Britain in exchange for Cuba.
1783: Treaty of Paris recognizes United States independence and returns Florida to Spain.
1821: Spain cedes Florida to the United States.
So, you get the idea. The Castillo de San Marcos is one tough fort. And remains so 300+ years later.
A Spanish soldier greeted us as we entered the fort...
...and kindly allowed Chuck to take my picture with him. With my red nose and hood tightened around my face, it looks like the picture was taken in front of Valley Forge in Pennsylvania rather than Castillo de San Marcos in sunny Florida. :)
Inside the rooms in walls of the fort, we saw what the sleeping quarters may have looked like.
In this room, there were over 20 etchings of ships that had been scratched in the wall by soldiers many years ago.
During the American Revolution, patriot Christopher Gadsden was held in solitary confinement for 42 weeks by the British who occupied the fort. Because there were no windows to this cell, it was the warmest room in the fort today.
After walking through the walls of the fort, we entered the Plaza de Armas.
After listening to another Spanish soldier discuss all the different kinds of ammunition fired out of those big cannons, we walked up to the top of the fort walls to watch the first cannon firing of the day.
It was very cold and windy on top of the fort walls, so we sat down against the inside of the wall to wait for the cannon firing.
After a very long, detailed explanation by the head soldier of the cannon firing that seemed to take forever because we were all freezing, the soldiers prepared the cannon and fired.
After the cannon firing, we spent a couple of other minutes on top of the wall looking out at the ocean,
the BIG cannons,
and the interior plaza below. We could also see historic St. Augustine behind the fort.
After walking through the interior of the fort, we crossed the moat and headed back over to historic St. Augustine.
We were surprised at the number of people visiting historic St. Augustine particularly given how cold it was today.
We ate lunch at The Florida Cracker Café splitting a salad and hamburger that were very good. After lunch, we walked around historic St. Augustine a little longer. As we headed back to the car, we walked by the oldest wooden schoolhouse in the U.S.A.
Since we were both cold and I couldn't take any more pictures because the battery on my phone was dead that I was using to take the pictures, we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel.
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