*Originally published June 22, 2021 as a promotional piece. Some information may be missing.
The Castillo de San Marcos was built by the Spanish to defend St. Augustine, Florida, and the Atlantic trade route. As with many things in the oldest continuously occupied city in the United States, it is the oldest masonry fortress in the continental US and preserves more than 450 years of cultural intersections.
Located on the western shore of the Matanzas Bay, its construction was ordered by Governor Francisco de la Guerra y de la Vega after a 1668 raid of St. Augustine by English privateer Robert Searles that destroyed much of the city and damaged the existing wooden fort. It was designed by Spanish engineer Ignacio Daza, with construction beginning in 1672.
Construction of the core of the fortress was finished in 1695, although the fort would undergo many changes, additions, and renovations over the centuries.
The fort was a continuously occupied military installation for 251 years, though it changed hands between the Spanish, the British several times, and finally the United States in 1821. During those changes in occupation, the name of the fort was changed several times as well, becoming US Army Base Fort Marion in 1821, named in honor of Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion.
The fort was declared a National Monument in 1924, and after 251 years of continuous military occupation, it was deactivated in 1933. The site was then turned over to the National Park Service for care and conservation, with its original name Castillo de San Marcos being restored by an act of Congress in 1942.
Castillo de San Marcos was attacked several times and besieged twice: first, by English Colonial forces led by Carolina Colony Governor James Moore in 1702, and a second time by English Georgia Colony Governor James Oglethorpe in 1740. It was never taken by force.
The fort has changed hands six times, all peaceful, among four different governments: the Spanish, the English, the United States, and the Confederacy during the Civil War.
The Castillo was used as a prison by the English during the Revolutionary War, and at one time it held three signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Under US control, the fort was used as a military prison to incarcerate members of Native American tribes - among them were Osceola, the famous war chief, during the Second Seminole War, and Geronimo's band of Chiricahua Apache.
The Castillo is constructed of coquina, a locally sourced stone-type compound made of seashell and limestone. Its walls are 11-19 feet thick at the base and taper to 9 feet at the top. The use of coquina as the building material for both the Castillo de San Marcos and the nearby Fort Matanzas created fortresses that were nearly indestructible.
Unlike other types of stone, coquina has a compressible nature, absorbing the blasts of projectile cannons rather than deflecting. As a result, ammunition would get stuck in the fort walls rather than exploding the wall into pieces.
The fort's other rather significant feature is its star-shaped design; it was modeled after a 15th century Italian design known as the "bastion system," which eliminated blind spots and allowed multiple cannons to be fired at the same target.
A moat surrounds the structure, although the moat has been empty for many years.
The entrance is on the south side of the fort and is protected by a barbacan, or arrow shaped outwork. A stationary bridge leads partway across the moat, and the path continues into the fort by drawbridge.
All of the areas and rooms are off of the main courtyard in the center of the fortress, which unfortunately I have not had the opportunity to see myself. During our last few trips to St. Augustine, the daily tours inside the Castillo were not being run due to Covid.
The cannons shown here are examples of what would have been mounted on the upper gun deck walls of the huge structure, and you can walk along the bay side of the Castillo to check them out.
Castillo de San Marcos is one of the main attractions that St. Augustine visitors come to see - not just for the daily tours of the fort itself, and the history, but for the ghost stories and hauntings associated with it. My own experiences touring the fort, other than our own wanderings around without a tour guide, have been with the ghost tours around the city at night.
The biggest ghost story of the Castillo involves death, adultery, and rage. in July 1784 Colonel Garcia Marti arrived at the Castillo with his very pretty, much younger wife Dolores. While she was young and outgoing, and made many friends in St. Augustine, her husband Colonel Marti was dour and humorless.
She met his young and handsome assistant, Captain Abela, and before long the two fell in love and began an affair. As with all stories of this type, Colonel Marti discovered the affair, and one night Dolores and the Captain disappeared.
When their absence was noted, the Colonel told everyone that Captain Abela had left on a special mission to Cuba and Dolores had taken ill, going to live with her aunt in Mexico with plans to return to Spain from there. Although questions abounded, his story was never directly challenged.
It was in 1833 when Lieutenant Tuttle, an American officer, found a hidden room behind a brick wall in the dungeon area, with the skeletal remains of two prisoners chained inside, inadvertently discovering the truth. It is believed that Colonel Marti entombed the pair there to end their lives.
The views from the Castillo are spectacular. We watched the sun set over the city during our last visit and finalized our decision as to when we would be moving to Florida permanently. If you're in St. Augustine, this is one of the places you should definitely visit, even if you just walk around on your own without taking one of the tours.
1 S. Castillo Drive
St. Augustine, FL 32084
904-825-6506
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