Our Nation's Oldest City

St. Augustine, the oldest permanently occupied European settlement in the continental United States.

It was Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles who stepped ashore here in 1565 and established a small settlement - one which ultimately survived under Spanish, British and later United States rule. It wasn't until four decades had passed that Jamestown, Va., was settled, and more than a half century before the Pilgrims found Plymouth Rock.

We stress "European" in recognition of the Native Americans who first resided here. Timucuan Indians already populated these shores and were on hand to observe Menendez' landing. Taken in proper context, St. Augustine can rightfully stake its claim as the Oldest City.

Colonization did not occur easily. In 1561, Menendez sent word to Spain's King Philip II that Florida was not worthy of Spanish settlement. By 1565, however, the winds had changed. The growing threat of Florida's colonization by the French crown spurred the Spanish to turn their energies toward establishing a permanent settlement on the peninsula. By virtue of his experience as both soldier and sailor, Menendez was selected to lead an expedition comprised of some 1,500 soldiers, sailors and tradesmen - some with wives and children - to establish a new colony.

The journey was not a smooth one. After surviving a hurricane which separated the boats in his fleet, Menendez finally reached the Florida shore at Cape Canaveral. The date was Aug. 28, the feast day of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. Menendez continued to sail north, seeking the French settlement of Fort Caroline. Encountering the harbor leading to the Indian village of Seloy on September 4, he named it St. Augustine in honor of the saint.

Pressed to proceed and approach the French settlement, Menendez continued north. His attempts to overtake the French fort were futile, however; and he soon returned to the harbor of St. Augustine. Soon after, the governor of Spain, or "adelantado," arrived in the company of Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales. The land was claimed for Spain, and the first Catholic Mass was offered in the new land. For nearly 200 years, the Spanish managed to maintain a fragile hold on Pascua florida, the land first sighted by Juan Ponce de Leon and named by him for "The Feast of Flowers at Easter Time" in April of 1513.

The little settlement was able to withstand and survive the attacks of Englishman Sir Francis Drake in 1586 and Robert Searles in 1668. It was these setbacks which prompted the construction of the coquina fort, Castillo de San Marcos. Completed in 1695, the fort sheltered the garrison town during the 1702 raid by South Carolina's Governor James Moore and the 1740 assault by General James Oglethorpe of Georgia. It was politics, not battle, which finally wrenched Florida from Spain, when it was ceded to England during a territorial exchange in 1763.

The British remained in the city for 20 years. It was during their tenure that a colony of indentured servants from Greece, Italy and the island of Minorca was established in New Smyrna, south of St. Augustine. That settlement eventually failed, and in 1777, the New Smyrna colonists headed north for St. Augustine. They remained here even after the return of the Spanish in 1784. Their descendants now form a major core of the city's population.

Florida became a territory of the United States in 1821, gaining statehood in 1845. In the late 1880s, oil millionaire Henry Flagler built a number of elegant hotels and churches here in an attempt to fulfill his vision of establishing an American Riviera along Florida's eastern shores. This "golden era" ended in the early 1900s, as Flagler's interests moved south. His legacy, however, remains - and his buildings grace St. Augustine as both monuments