Historical Facts

How St. Augustine Got Its Name
The question is often asked how and why St. Augustine got its name. The story is simple and for those who do not know these are the historical facts.
THE SPANISH ADMIRAL, Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, left Santo Domingo on August 15,1565 for Florida with five ships carrying 500 soldiers, 200 sailors and 100 noncombatants. The ships reached the Florida coast at about Cape Canaveral on August 28 and sailed northward to the French-named Dolphin, which the Adelantado Menendez renamed San Agustin as it was on the festival of Saint Augustine, August 28, that he had reached Florida.
Historical accounts relate that on Sept. 4 Menendez sailed up to the River of May (St. Johns River) in search of the French, finding them he challenged them, Ribault, aware of his danger, sailed away. Menendez gave pursuit north five or six leagues and finally at dawn directed one of his ships to return to the harbor. The Adelantado then ordered the other ships to San Agustin, entering the port without incident on the eve of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Thus St. Augustine was named and officially born on Saturday, Sept. 8,1565. «
THE SAINT FOR WHICH ihe city was named was born Npv. 13,354 in the small town of Tagaste in Africa. He became bishop of Hippo in Roman Africa and is known as one of the great saints and scholars of the catholic faith. He died August 28,430, SH& feast is celebrated on this date.
-Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board

Castillo de San Marcos Grew Out Of Necessity: In the spring of 1668 in the thick of night, a near tragic event in St. Augustine helped convince officials in Spain that a new and impenetrable fortress must be constructed if their struggling community was to survive.

The deciding even was a near successful pirate attack. According St. Augustine historian J.R. Van Campen in "The Story of St. Augustine,: an English pirate named Robert Searles and his band managed to trick an unsuspecting harbor pilot and land on the beach.

The residents of St. Augustine were expecting a more friendly group of arrivals from Vera Cruz, Mexico, that fated night. They soon discovered not friends, but cutthroats in their midst.

Be the time the govern, residents and some of the garrison soldiers were able to barricaded themselves inside the city's wooden fort, it was too late, The pirates pillaged town by night-killing as they went through its streets-but were unable to capture the fort by the next day. When the invaders finally left St. Augustine, they left 60 of its inhabitants behind-dead or injured.

It was a dangerously close call for the early residents of St. Augustine, but it still provided strong impetus for building a more permanent fort in the settlement.

Another factor that influenced Spain's decision to further fortify St. Augustine was the found of Charleston S.C. by the English. In 1670 an expedition sailed from St. Augustine to strike the first blow against their encroaching neighbors, but a storm at sea prevents their ever reaching the English fort.

In the fall of 1699, Queen Regent Marianna of Spain directed the Viceroy of Mexico to finance the construction of "an impregnable stone fortress" here, writed Van Campen.

Also the plans for what would eventually be the Castillo de San Marcos were laid. All the earlier forts in Florida had been built from wood, but the never survived the coastal humidity. This new structure would be made from coquina, a calcified rock formed from shell found in great abundance on Anastasia Island.

The fort took almost a quarter of a century to complete at the expense of thousands of hours of toil. Stone masons imported from Cube shaped and laid the huge chunks of coquina rock in place. The blocks had been floated by rafter from quarried on the island. By 1696-24 years after its beginning-the Castillo de Marcos was nearly complete.

Not only has the castle of St. Marks survived attacks by pirate, shipboard cannon and fierce storms through the centuries, the Castillo has also survived the great enemy of all---the passage of time. Now, more than two and a half centuries later, the gates of the fort remain open to the inspection of visitors from everywhere.

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