The Castillo de San Marcos: One of the Most Impressive Historic Sites in St. Augustine
I published a post last week that featured a few images from my trip with Serena to St. Augustine, the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the United States (if you don’t count San Juan, Puerto Rico, the oldest city under United States jurisdiction, founded by Spanish colonists in 1521). But who’s counting, right?
Castillo de San Marcos
One thing that St. Augustine and Puerto Rico have in common, however, is that they both feature a “castillo” as one of their main attractions. San Juan has the Castillo San Felipe del Morro which dates back to 1634 and is known for being the largest fortification built by the Spanish in the New World; while St. Augustine is home to the Castillo de San Marcos, a massive fort that overlooks the sea on the St. Augustine coast, dating back to 1672.
The Castillo de San Marcos was designed by the Spanish engineer Ignacio Daza, with construction beginning in 1672, 107 years after the city’s founding by Spanish Admiral and conquistador Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, when Florida was part of the Spanish Empire. The fort’s construction was ordered by Governor Francisco de la Guerra y de la Vega after a raid by the English privateer Robert Searles in 1668 that destroyed much of St. Augustine and damaged the existing wooden fort. The construction of the core of the current fortress was completed in 1695, although it would undergo many alterations and renovations over the centuries.
As the only extant 17th century military construction in the country and the oldest masonry fortress in the United States, it is a prime example of the Vauban (star-shaped) style of fortifications, and the culmination of hundreds of years of military defense engineering. It is also unique for the material used in its construction. The Castillo is one of only two fortifications in the world built out of a semi-rare form of limestone called coquina. The other is Fort Matanzas National Monument, 14 miles south of St. Augustine.
Given its light and porous nature, coquina would seem to be a poor choice of building material for a fort. However, the Spanish had few other options; it was the only stone available on the northeast coast of La Florida. Ultimately, coquina’s porosity turned out to have an unexpected benefit. Because of its conglomerate mixture, coquina contains millions of microscopic air pockets making it compressible. The thick coquina walls absorbed or deflected projectiles rather than yielding to them, providing a surprisingly long-lived fortress.
Originating in Italy in the 15th century, the particular star shaped design of the Castillo is a result of architecture adapting to technology. The change in warfare brought about by black powder weapons created new types of defensive structures adapted both to withstand or avoid the impact of cannon projectiles and to effectively mount cannons to repel any attackers. Of the major architectural variations, the “bastion system,” named for the projecting diamond or angle shaped formations added onto the fort walls, was the most commonly and effectively used.
Castillo de San Marcos was attacked several times and twice besieged: first by English colonial forces led by Carolina Colony Governor James Moore in 1702, and then by English Georgia colonial Governor James Oglethorpe in 1740. Owing to its strategic cannon placement and star-shaped design, the fort was never breached or taken by force throughout its various stages of sovereign ownership. However, possession of the fort has changed five times, all peaceful, among four different governments: Spain, 1695–1763 and 1783–1821, Kingdom of Great Britain, 1763–1783, and the United States since 1821.
The Americans called the Castillo “Fort Marion,” honoring the revolutionary patriot from the Carolinas, General Francis Marion. The United States government used Fort Marion as a prison for Native Americans in the late 1800s. Natives from both Florida and the Great Plains were held at the fort during this time – including the famous war chief, Osceola, in the Second Seminole War – and members of western tribes, including Geronimo’s band of Chiricahua Apache.
Due to the overcrowding and lack of resources, continued imprisonment at Fort Marion was considered unsustainable. Less than a year after they arrived, the prisoners were transferred in 1887 to the Mount Vernon Barracks in Alabama through 1894, when they were again moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. They would remain prisoners there until 1914, when they were given a choice to either move onto the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico or settle on allotments in Oklahoma. Those that chose the latter would eventually become the Fort Sill Apache Tribe.
Only ten years after the Apache prisoners were “freed” from their decades-long internment, Fort Marion, their early prison, was declared a national monument. It was the first site to receive federal funding specifically earmarked towards historic preservation. Today, Fort Marion is better known by its original Spanish name, Castillo de San Marcos.
Over the last decades, however, the staff at the Castillo have made a concerted effort to share the loss and survival endured by Native captives with visitors, many of whom aren’t aware that any indigenous prisoners of war were held at the fort. In a 2017 interview, Amelia Vela, a park ranger at the Castillo said, “Telling these stories is now a part of our foundation document — a part of why we exist and what we’re here to do — and there are a lot of dedicated staff willing to preserve the history and share it with the public.”
Ownership of the Castillo was transferred to the National Park Service in 1933 and 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 become a popular tourist attraction. It occupies 2.5 acres in downtown St. Augustine and is well worth a visit.
The Castillo de San Marcos is open to the public seven days per week except Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November) and Christmas Day (December 25). First admission is at 9:00 a.m. and last admission is at 5:00 p.m. The Castillo closes and visitors must exit at 5:15 p.m. The park grounds are closed from midnight until 6:00 a.m. A standard pass will run you $15 and $45 for an annual pass.
All photographs (except the ones of Serena and myself) taken with my new/old Pentax K-1