FL -- St. Augustine -- Castillo de San Marcos Natl Monument:
Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.
Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.
Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider. IP Address: 18.118.1.232 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.
Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]
Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
CAST_030827_022.JPG: The crest above the gate is a replica of one that's inside the museum. The sign on that says:
Royal Coat of Arms.
The castles and lions of this simplified royal coat of arms of Spain are symbols of the kingdoms of Castillo and Leon, which joined to form modern Spain. Brought from Havana and installed in 1762, this stone graced the ravelin (the detached entrance fortification) until 1958, when it was removed and placed indoors. A replica of this stone can be seen in place in the ravelin.
CAST_030827_087.JPG: Bronze 15-inch mortar, constructed in Barcelona, Spain 1724. This weapon, captured by the United States during the Spanish American War in 1898, is part of the Yale University art collection. It was placed on indefinite loan to the Castillo de San Marcos in 1971. Maximum Range: 2100 yards, 1.2 miles.
CAST_030827_134.JPG: Sentry Box. It enabled the sentry to watch outside the fort to the front and sides, and sheltered him from weather and enemy fire. These turrets were red against the white walls of the fort.
CAST_030827_147.JPG: The museum was pretty good! Among other things, it had a timeline, snippets of which are below:
1492-93 Christopher Columbus (under Spanish contract) discovers the New World by reaching the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola.
1513 Ponce de Leon, of Spain, explores the coast near St Augustine and names the land "La Florida".
1565 Pedro Menendez de Aviles, of Spain, founds St Augustine and defeats the French at Fort Carolina and Matanzas Inlet.
On Sept 8 1565, with banners flying, trumpets sounding, artillery booming, and 600 soldiers and settlers cheering, Menendez set foot on the shore. In honor of the Saint whose feast day it was when he first sighted land, he named the town St Augustine.
1586 Sir Francis Drake, of England, spots the lookout tower and attacks St Augustine, burning the town. The populace fled into the woods because they were greatly outnumbered by the English.
1600-ish Diminishing supplies and increasing hostility of the Indians made life very hard for early settlers. Menendez has established other military outposts, but only St Augustine survived.
1668 English pirates sack St Augustine, but fail to capture the wooden fort.
1669 Queen Regent Mariana of Spain orders the construction of a stone fort in St Augustine.
1672-95 The Castillo de San Marcos is built, designed by Engineer Ignacio Daza, features a height of 26 feet, a beam-supported gundeck, and courtyard 155 feet square.
1682 A new engineer found that one of the bastions had been built 3 feet too low. By 1686, such mistakes were corrected. Labor for the fort included 100 Indians and Spaniards, plus a few convicts and slaves. Indian laborers got 20 cents per day; masons, $2.40; master workmen, $4,00.
1702 The English destroy the Indian missions enroute to attack St Augustine. They occupy the city and besiege the Castillo unsuccessfully. They burn the city and leave.
1740 James Oglethorpe with 2000 British troops attacks and besieges St Augustine unsuccessfully.
1763 British acquire Florida and Pensacola from Spain in exchange for Cuba. France compensates Spain with Louisiana. British reorganizes [sic] Florida into two colonies, East Florida and West Florida. St Augustine is the capital of East Florida.
1784-1821 St Augustine reverts to its former status as a military outpost dependent on the Spanish Government. When the War of 1812 breaks out between England and the US, it is feared that Spain might let England use Florida as a base of operations. Failure of Spain to control lawless Indians and escaped slaves leeds [sic] to American intervention and eventually a treaty with Spain. The territory is later annexed by the United States.
1837 Osceola, a leader of the Seminole Indians, is captured near St Augustine and imprisoned in the fort.
1845 Florida becomes a State.
1861 Florida secedes from the Union, and Confederates seize Fort Marion.
1862 Unionists reoccupy St Augustine.
1883 Henry M Flagler visits St Augustine. With the opening of his hotels, the wealthy and fashionable flock to St Augustine, turning the town into a "Southern Newport." He connected St Augustine to the North with the Florida East Coast Railway.
1888 The Ponce de Leon Hotel was built by Henry Flagler in 1888. Flagler was one of the original partners with John D Rockefeller in Standard Oil Corp, and was a multimillionaire when he arrived in St Augustine in the winter of 1883. He was so impressed with the charm and possibilities of the area, he had two huge hotels built, and Ponce de Leon and the Alcazar.
CAST_030827_151.JPG: This is the original coat of arms that hung outside for fort for almost 200 years.
CAST_030827_178.JPG: This is tabby. Tabby is a type of Spanish concrete that was used by both the Spanish and English in Georgia, Florida and other places where practical. Oyster shells were burned in a lime powder and mixed with sand, water, and whole shells to form this semi-concrete. Once mixed, these materials were poured into wooden forms in courses 12 to 18 inches deep. After hardening, the process was repeated.
CAST_030827_185.JPG: This is the Chapel of St Mark
CAST_030827_194.JPG: The guard quarters. One of the people they had guard was Osceola and his men. As one of the signs says:
Florida's best known Indian group, the Seminoles, are relatively newcomers to the pages of Florida history. The first bands of Creek Indians to move from British Georgia into Spanish Florida in the early 1700's were arriving 200 years after the first Spanish explorations and settlements. Throughout the 18th century, fragments of several Indian tribes from today's Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina moved south and were joined by runaway black slaves from British plantations, who often lived as vassals of the Indian towns in north and central Florida
The name Seminole comes from a Muskogee word "semano-li" which comes in turn from the Spanish term "cimarron," meaning wild or runaway.
In 1832, Federal policy aimed to removed [sic] Indians from all lands east of the Mississippi to make way for expanding white settlements. Most Seminoles refused to be moved to the "Indian Territory". In 1835, guerilla fighting broke out; the next seven years proved to be the most costly Indian war ever fought by the United States Army.
Osceola, a war leader, was arrested under a flag of truce just south of St Augustine in October 1837. He and 203 Seminoles were imprisoned here at Fort Marion for two months. In late November 1837, twenty Indians led by Wildcat and John Cavallo escaped from the fort and fled south the Everglades. In December, Osceola and the other prisoners were transferred to Fort Moultrie at Charleston, South Carolina. Osceola died there from an infection in January 1838. Only about 200 Seminoles remained hidden in south Florida at the end of the Seminole wars.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Castillo de San Marcos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Castillo de San Marcos is a Spanish built fort located in the city of St. Augustine, Florida, United States. It was known as Fort Marion from 1821 until 1942, and Fort St. Mark from 1763 until 1784 while under British control.
Early history:
The city of St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish in 1565. Over the next one hundred years, the city was defended by nine wooden forts. Following the 1668 attack of the English pirate Robert Searle, it was decided by the Queen Regent of Spain, Mariana, that a masonry fortification be constructed to protect the city. In October 1672 construction began on the fort that would become the Castillo de San Marcos.
Construction:
The Castillo is a masonry star fort made of a stone called "coquina", literally "little shells". This is what the stone is 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. The coquina was quarried from Anastasia Island across the bay from the Castillo, and ferried across to the construction site. Construction lasted twenty-three years, being completed in 1695.
First test:
In 1670, Charles Town (modern-day Charleston, South Carolina) was founded by the British. Being just two days sail from St. Augustine, this was one of the events that spurred the fort's construction. In November 1702, forces under orders from Governor James Moore of Charles Town, set sail from Carolina in an attempt to capture the city.
Upon their arrival at St. Augustine, the British laid siege to the city. All of the city's residents, some 1,200 people, along with all of the fort's soldiers, some 300, remained protected inside the wall of the fort for the next two months during the siege.
The British cannon had little effect on the walls of the fort. The coquina was very effective at absorbing the impact of the shells, allowing very little damage to the walls themselves. The siege was broken when the Spanish fleet from Havana, Cuba arrived, trapping the British in the bay. The British were forced to burn their ships to prevent them from falling into the Spaniards' hands, and march overland back to Carolina. As they withdrew, they set fire to the city of St. Augustine, burning much of it to the ground.
Second period of construction:
After the siege of 1702, the Castillo underwent a period of reconstruction. Beginning in 1738, the interior of the fort was redesigned and rebuilt. Interior rooms were made deeper, and vaulted ceilings replaced the original wooden ones. The vaulted ceilings allowed for better protection from bombardments and allowed for cannon to be placed along the gun deck, not just at the corner bastions. The new ceilings required the height of the exterior wall to be increased from 26 to 33 feet
Second British siege:
Tensions between Great Britain and Spain had been on the rise for years, and in 1739, Great Britain declared war on Spain, the conflict known as the War of Jenkins' Ear. As part of the war, British General James Oglethorpe laid siege to the Castillo and the city of St. Augustine. Governor Manuel de Montiano, the Spanish governor of St. Augustine, prepared the defenses of the Castillo and the Spanish colony. Oglethorpe set out from the newly created colony of Georgia and invaded Spanish held land. After capturing the Spanish outposts of Fort San Diego, Fort Pupo, Fort Picolata and Fort Mose, he marched his troops toward St. Augustine.
General Oglethorpe landed his troops on Anastasia Island across the inlet from the Castillo and the city. He began firing on the Castillo in hopes that a sustained bombardment and blockade would force the governor of Florida to surrender. However, a small vessel managed to get through the blockade by evading the lone British ship guarding the Matanzas Inlet to the south of Anastasia Island and set sail for Havana, Cuba. When they returned, found that the ship guarding the inlet had gone, allowing supplies to be brought to the Castillo without opposition. The coquina walls of the Castillo once again withstood British bombardment, and on the morning of the 38th day of the siege the British withdrew their forces from the area.
British occupation:
In 1763, the British finally managed to take the Castillo, but not by force. As a provision of the Treaty of Paris (1763), Britain gained all of Florida in exchange for returning Havana and Manila to Spain, captured during the Seven Years' War. On July 21, 1763, the Spanish governor turned the Castillo over to the British.
The British would make a few changes to the fort, most notably its name, becoming Fort St. Mark. With Britain being the dominating power in North America, it was not felt that the fort was needed to be kept in first rate condition. This attitude was prevalent until the outbreak of the American Revolution.
During the war, St. Augustine became the capital of the British colony of East Florida. Improvements were begun on the fort, in keeping with its new role as a base of operations for the British in the south. The gates and walls were repaired and several rooms had second floors added to increase the housing capacity of the fort. The Castillo saw action during the American Revolution mainly as a prison, holding several patriots captured in Charleston when it was taken by the British. Major operations from St. Augustine were kept under control by the actions of the Spanish, who had declared war on Britain in 1779. Bernardo de Gálvez, governor of Spanish Louisiana, attacked several British held cities, capturing all of them. His actions kept the British occupied in the south, never letting them organize any major actions against the Americans from the Castillo.
At the end of the war, the Second Treaty of Paris returned Florida to Spain. On July 12, 1784, Spanish troops returned to St. Augustine.
Second Spanish occupation:
When Florida was returned to Spanish control, they found a much changed territory. Many Spaniards had left Florida after the hand over to Britain, and many British citizens stayed after the hand over back to Spain. Many border problems arose between Spanish Florida and the new United States. Spain had changed the name of the fort back to the Castillo de San Marcos, and continued to build upon the improvements that Britain had made to the fort in an effort to strengthen Spain’s hold on the territory. However, due to increased pressure from the United States and several other factors, in 1821, Spain signed the Adams-Onís Treaty, ceding Florida to the United States.
First American period:
Upon the hand over to the United States, the Americans changed the name of the Castillo to Fort Marion. Structurally, little was changed to the fort during this time. Many storerooms were converted to prison cells, due to their heavy doors and barred windows. Also, part of the moat was transformed into a battery as part of the American Coastal Defense System. During the Second Seminole War, Chief Osceola was jailed at the fort in 1837. Many other Native American tribal peoples were held at the fort in later years.
The Confederate period:
In January, 1861, Florida seceded from the United States in the opening months of the American Civil War. Union troops had withdrawn from the fort, leaving only one man behind as caretaker of the fort. In January 1861, Confederate troops marched on the fort. The Union soldier manning the fort refused to surrender it unless he was given a receipt for it from the Confederacy. He was given the receipt and the fort was taken by the Confederacy without a shot. Most of the artillery in the fort was then sent to other forts, leaving the fort nearly defenseless.
Second American period:
The fort was taken back by Union forces on March 11, 1862 when the USS Wabash entered the bay, finding the city evacuated by Confederate troops. The city leaders were willing to surrender in order to preserve the town, and the city and the fort were retaken without firing a shot. Throughout the rest of the fort's operational history, it was used as a military prison. During the 1880s and 1890s many Native Americans were imprisoned in the fort during the American expansion westward. In 1898, over 200 deserters from the Spanish-American War were imprisoned at the fort.
This marked one of the last actions at the fort as an operational base. In 1900, the fort was taken off of the active duty rolls after 205 years of service, under five different flags. In 1924, the fort was designated a National Monument and in 1933 it was transferred to the National Park Service from the War Department. In 1942, in honor of its Spanish heritage the name of the fort was changed back to the Castillo de San Marcos. As an historic property of the National Park Service, the National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. The fort is co-managed with Fort Matanzas National Monument. In 1975, the Castillo was designated an Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Since being transferred to the Park Service, the Castillo has been a tourist attraction occupying 2.5 acres (101,000 m²) in downtown St. Augustine.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.)
I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!