The starting point is the main entrance of the ancient city, where the two columns and part of the retaining wall that the Spanish built in front of the military fort Castillo de San Marco still prevail.
An old wooden school, mansions from the period and renovated buildings announce the splendor that this place had 400 or so years ago.
From gift shops, restaurants, terraces, bars and country and folk music to live rock, you will find plenty to entertain yourself here.
If we talk about gastronomy, this area of the country is known for homemade food, and in San Agustín you can find a lot of that: fried chicken steak, seafood, barbecue and vegetables, but also international and sophisticated cuisine with high attention.
But food needs an additional article that we will write soon.
We arrived at Plaza de la Constitución, where the Basilica Cathedral of San Agustín looks slender and a large park still guards the pergola where musicians and orchestras delighted the ears of the Augustinians.
If we enter the basilica cathedral we can admire its unique combination of Spanish mission and neoclassical styles, where today the exposed interior ceiling with decorated wooden beams stands out.
This basilica cathedral, which was a church during the Spanish era and was later expanded to what we know today, pointed out guide Pedro, is built with coquina, which is a sedimentary rock from the deposition of seashells on the coast and helped “save the building from the fire of attacks,” he stressed.
In the gardens of the basilica cathedral, a statue of Father Feliz Varela remembers that the Cuban religious and thinker lived here part of his childhood and then his last months of life in 1853. His remains were transferred to Cuba in 1912.
A few more steps and we arrive at the majestic Ponce de León Hotel, which today houses Flagler College.
This beautiful building, which has large halls and rooms, reflects the neocolonial Spanish Renaissance style and was paid for by millionaire Henry M. Flagler in 1888, the same one who brought the train to Miami and the Florida Keys in 1896.
Another of Flagler’s great buildings in St. Augustine is the Memorial Presbyterian Church, built in 1889, which features an impressive copper dome and elements of Spanish Renaissance, Italian, Moorish and Neo-Baroque architecture.
The sea
Looking at the Atlantic Ocean and along the coast that guards the century-old city, hundreds of pleasure boats pass by.
There are several sea excursion providers that depart from Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor, but the St. Augustine Sailing firm has Rose Ann and Chuck and 12 sailboats that accommodate up to 12 passengers who are welcomed aboard with champagne and hors d’oeuvres.
Captain Steven, with a lifetime of experience at sea, guides the modern sailboat at a gentle pace until approaching Castillo San Marco and the Lions Bridge, where the visit of a replica of Ferdinand Magellan’s flagship Trinidad stands out. who traveled the world in 1519 to reach the spice islands in the Far East.
History
We arrived at San Agustín with the desire to know the history of Florida, where a little more than 100 years before the arrival of the English pilgrims to Cape Cod, the expedition of the Spanish explorer Ponce de León arrived at this place in search of the Fountain of the Youth in 1513.
Here we find a park that revolves around the hypothesis of the fountain of youth. There is the small spring that the Spaniards were looking for and the remains of natives who belong to the Timucua tribe.
Right here, pointed out the anthropologist Chad, is the tomb of a lady that dates back more than 1,200 years, but we do not continue excavating because we would be regulated by the federal authorities, he pointed out. It is the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 that governs the excavation of archaeological sites on federal lands or lands that belonged to Indians.
That first expedition was followed by others, but it was not until 1565 that the Spanish admiral Pedro Menndez de Avils established what we know today as the first European settlement in North America, where streets were outlined, buildings were built and a growing commercial movement was created, he recalled. the archaeologist
From the year 1565 is Mission of Nombre de Dios, a large park overlooking the sea where Pedro Menndez de Avilés disembarked and Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales, who was the chaplain of the expedition, celebrated the first Thanksgiving Mass in the place.
Highlights include the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of La Leche, a Marian apparition popular among Spanish settlers in the area.
The original chapel was destroyed in 1728 by British invaders and rebuilt in 1875 and later in 1914.
Harassed by English and French corsairs and pirates, the city of St. Augustine, due to the irony of history, passed into British hands in 1763, when the Treaty of Paris granted Florida to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in exchange for the Spanish They would recover Havana, which had been invaded by the English.
But 20 years later, another treaty between the English and the Spanish returned Florida to Spain, and St. Augustine recovered its historical trajectory, Chad noted, until the Florida peninsula was acquired by the nascent territory of the United States of America in 1821 in exchange for five million dollars at the time, about 137 million today.
Today San Agustín proudly displays its Spanish legacy. And proof of this is the permanence of the strong Castillo de San Marco, where by order of the national parks administration the old Castilian flag of the Burgundian cross flies.
How to get there
The best way to get to St. Augustine is by road from Miami or another city or through Jacksonville International Airport.
If you choose to travel by plane, there is personalized transportation service to St. Augustine at the Jacksonville air terminal, as well as buses that you can board in Downtown Jacksonville.
Where to stay
The accommodation offering is wide, from five-star hotels to hostels and Airbnb apartments that you can rent.
Consult the portal viajastaugustine.com for more information.
