The Castillo is the oldest and best preserved masonry fort of the Spanish Colonial times in the continental United States, and was initially established to protect the Spanish fleet from marauders as the ships were sailing back to Europe with their New World treasures. St. Augustine's claim to fame is that it is America's oldest continually inhabited city, and it was originally established in 1565 as a fort from which the Spanish interests could be defended, particularly as the French had just established Fort Caroline to the north. The French didn't put up much of fight (Matanzas is Spanish for slaughter, if that offers a hint), but the Spanish maintained their defenses to protect against the British, Native Americans and various pirates after they vanquished the French. The Castillo itself is actually the tenth fort built at St. Augustine, and was built over about 23 years approximately 100 years after St. Augustine's founding, replacing previous wooden forts which didn't stand the tests of time for various reasons. The cool thing about the Castillo is that it is built of coquina, which is basically a sedimentary "rock" made of seashells which have cemented together over time and which the Spanish were able to quarry.
Coquina:
As I said in my last blog, I'm going to keep the commentary to a minimum so that I can start to catch back up, so with that, I'll call it a post.
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment