Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine, FL - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

St. Augustine was established in 1565 by Spanish explorers and, in spite of a rather turbulent early history, has remained continuously inhabited ever since. This makes St. Augustine the oldest continuously inhabited city, established by Europeans, in what is now the United States.

In the early days, raids by British privateers or the French or Indians led the Spanish to fortify the settlement. This was accomplished by building a wall of sorts around the city and constructing a masonry fort called Castillo de San Marcos. The fort was completed in 1695 and still stands today, making it the oldest masonry fort on the continent.

Castillo de San Marcos was built with coquina stone quarried on nearby Anastasia Island. Coquina is a type of limestone consisting of seashell fragments cemented together over time. It’s quite rare, being found in only a few places, and at the time the fort was built, no one knew how the stone would hold up under fire. Several bombardments and 350 years have attested to the stone’s strength.

A couple of sieges and the aforementioned bombardments notwithstanding, Castillo de San Marcos was never taken by force. Nevertheless, it did change hands on several occasions. At the end of the Seven Years’ War, Florida was ceded to Great Britain who renamed it Fort St. Mark. This arrangement lasted for twenty years until the 1783 Treaty of Paris ceded Florida back to Spain who promptly renamed it back to Castillo de San Marcos.

When Florida passed to the United States in 1821 the Americans named the fort after Revolutionary War hero Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion. Confederate troops occupied Fort Marion shortly after Florida seceded from the Union in 1861 but the Confederate flag only flew over the fort for a few months as Union troops occupied St. Augustine early in 1862. In both cases, no shots were fired.

Today, Castillo de San Marcos is a National Monument administered by the National Park Service.

Stamp Issuing Country: United States Date of Issue: 24-Jan-2021 Denomination: $7.95 Color: multicolored Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]

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