Thursday, August 4, 2016

August 05, 2016



Castillo de San Marcos


Once you step inside Castillo de San Marcos, it’s as if you’ve stepped into another world . . . the 18TH century to be exact. Standing in the main hall and looking through the archway into a Spanish guardroom lets me know I’ve arrived at my favorite place in all of St. Augustine. Before the 1750s, the guardrooms were one large room, but renovations separated them into two. I sometimes see visitors sitting or lying on the bunks (which I’m not sure you’re allowed to do) to see just how hard they are, but you can see just by looking at them that napping in Spanish times wouldn’t have been much of a treat.

St. George Street


For the first 198 years of life, St. Augustine was solely Spanish. The British were here for 21 years, then the Spanish again for 37 years, and then the old crumbling city came under the protection of the United States of America. The flags shown at the Colonial Quarter gift shop next to the American flag are, from left to right, Florida State, 1ST Period Spanish (1565-1763), 2ND Period Spanish (1784-1821), and British (1763-1784).


(c) 2015-2016 St. Augustine Fridays

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