An historical marker at the site provides the following information:
"Mission San Luis de Talimali was among the largest and most important missions in Spanish Florida. Its parishioners were Apalachee Indians who were descendents of those people whose village Hernando de Soto appropriated during the winter of 1539-1540. The Apalachees were the most culturally advanced of Florida's native peoples, and Mission San Luis was one of the first missions established by Franciscan friars in their efforts to serve the Apalachees' major villages that spread across the highlands of Leon and Jefferson Counties. The mission was moved to this location in 1656 and was recognized as the western capital of Spanish Florida. Mission San Luis was home to more than 1,500 Apalachees as well as a Spanish deputy governor, soldiers, friars, and civilians. The site was burned and abandoned by its residents injn 1704 just two days before an Anglo-Creek strike force reached it. Mission San Luis was never repopulated by Spanish colonists or Apalachee Indians, who had lived in the region for centuries. Recognizing its historical and archaeological significance, the State of Florida purchased Mission San Luis in 1983. Today, it is managed by the Florida Department of State's Division of Historical Resources."
From Wikipedia (
visit link) --
"Mission San Luis de Apalachee (also known as San Luis de Talimali) was a Spanish Franciscan mission built in 1633 in the Florida Panhandle, two miles west of the present-day Florida Capitol Building in Tallahassee, Florida. It was located in the descendent settlement of Anhaica (also as Anhayca Apalache or Inihayca) capital of Apalachee Province. The mission was part of Spain's effort to colonize the region, and convert the Timucuan and Apalachee Indians to Christianity. The mission lasted until 1704, when it was evacuated and destroyed to prevent its use by an approaching militia of Creek Indians and South Carolinians."
"The site where the mission stood was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966."
"The buildings at San Luis included Spanish and Apalachee residential areas, the Franciscan Church and Spanish fort, as well as the native Council House which was one of the largest historic Indian structures in the southeastern United States at the time holding 2,000-3,000 people."
"In the early 1680s, the blockhouse was pulled down and replaced with a temporary makeshift barracks. The garrison was then expanded to 40 men, and sometimes even more for special expeditions."
"From 1695–1697 San Luis's new blockhouse was built. In mid-April of 1696, the governor reported that it was completed except for one-third of the roof. Work was then suspended because of the spring planting."
"In 1698, San Luis Apalachees were seriously alienated when Spaniards commandeered some of their houses and land; Spaniards also took lumber intended for church repairs and forced Indians to build houses for them."
"In October of 1702, an attempt to turn the blockhouse into a proper fort began after a defeat of an Apalachee force of warriors on the Flint River. The fort would have a palisade and parapets, as well as a dry moat. It was apparently completed in 1703 despite the impact of a severe epidemic. At the end of July 1704, the diminished Spanish garrison destroyed the fort and withdrew to St. Augustine."
"Beginning in 1996, Renker Eich Parks Architects, of St. Petersburg, Florida, with Herchel Sheperd, FAIA, undertook designing the reconstruction of many of the buildings in the mission using archeological and historical evidence to conjecture the architecture of the buildings to how they would originally have been built. The buildings that have since been reconstructed include the Church, the Convento, the Council House, the Chief's House, the Fort and Blockhouse, and a typical Spanish House as well as many minor features around the site."