The Castillo at St. Augustine

Today we drove to St. Augustine to see the fort we had passed on the water yesterday. We discovered that there are many more places we want to see in this town so we will need to go back another day.

It is biker week in Daytona Beach but it looked like all the bikers were in St. Augustine today. One long street that stretched for many blocks had motorcycles parked all long it angled toward the street.....hundreds!

Before this fort was build the town of St. Augustine was burned to the ground 7 times!  After it was built, when an enemy was approaching, the entire town would go to the fort for safety......two months worth of supplies for them were kept there.

The most interesting thing to me about the fort called, “The Castillo” is that it has Never Ever been taken by an enemy!  It has changed hands several times but only under treaties....like when the Spanish gave Florida to the British. It is made of Coquina rock (sand quartz, and tiny sea shells) and the outer walls are 16 ft thick!

As we approached the fort this is what we saw.

It's a little known history that only 21 yrs after Columbus' voyage, Juan Ponce de Leon claimed “La Florida” for Spain and then came the FIRST permanent settlement 1565. This was 42 yrs before England established a permanent American settlement. So America's Spanish colonial origins played a part in our past.

Here we are about to cross the first draw bridge. And in the distance on the right of the photo you can see the second draw bridge.

View from other side of draw bridge.

I had never heard of a “dry moat” but that is part of the reason this fortress was never taken.  View below the draw bridge.

Court yard from the top of the outside wall.

This is how the soldiers slept.  These were double bunk beds, two men above and two men below.

The ceilings in the lower rooms were arched so they would support heavier cannons on the roof. Look close and you can see that when the British took over they put beams across the top for another floor to sleep even more men.

Hospital room....with fire place at one end.

One of the cast bronze cannons.

 

This was originally just a ramp going up to the roof where they could roll up the guns.

Some of the cannons in place.

A collection of the some of the guns used. 

Looking out over the water from the fort you can easily see how they could protect the inlet from the Atlantic Ocean. Anyone coming at them from the water had a disadvantage.

The sentries had a clear view of outside the fort from turrets. These protected the sentries from enemy fire and from the weather.

The turrets were painted red and the walls were white when the Spanish had the fort so it resembled their country's flag.

The design, with a diamond shaped bastion on each corner, made it possible to defend every wall. Here I am standing on one corner looking back at the opposite corner.

Looking down on the water side of the fort you see a “shot oven” where cannon balls were heated red hot before loading into the guns...this would cause fires on the ships trying to attack. The cannons were different sizes with some able to fire 3 1/2 miles!

There was a high hill beyond the dry moat around this fort.  On the right of this photo you can see only the top of the fort in the distance....originally this hill went completely around the fort on the land side......it is nearly 7 feet lower now. The soldiers actually hoped the opposing military would climb the hill to try to gain entrance as they could then be easily overpowered by the fortress cannons.

So much amazing history here in Florida....I think it would take many trips to this town to understand just its history......there were a lot of culture mixes here...very interesting.

We will be leaving in the wee hours on Friday to fly to Texas to enjoy my college roommate's 50^th wedding anniversary.  She's a hoot!  So I know it will be FUN.  Lots of last minute things to do …...we never expected to be leaving the boat for something like this!   So I will be busy trying to figure out how to cover up the fact that all we have are boat clothes to wear to this wonderful celebration!