Castillo de San Marcos National Monument - St Augustine FL
Posted by: 
Don.Morfe
N 29° 53.838 W 081° 18.708
17R E 469896 N 3307446
Built by the Spanish in St. Augustine to defend Florida and the Atlantic trade route, Castillo de San Marcos National Monument preserves the oldest masonry fortification in the continental United States. The Fort was built in 1695.
Waymark Code: WM15ZN5
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 04/01/2022
Views: 6
From the National Park Service website:
The Founding of Castillo de San Marcos
Don Manuel de Cendoya
About four o'clock on Sunday afternoon, October 2, 1672, Governor Manuel Cendoya walked to a likely looking spot between the strings marking out the lines of the new fortification. He thrust a spade into the earth, and thus broke ground for the Castillo de San Marcos, the stone fort which would replace the succession of smaller wooden forts and would guard the settlement of San Agustín and hold the colony of La Florida for Spain.
Cendoya had arrived in St. Augustine just over a year before with his wife and two infant children. He was specifically charged by Mariana, Queen Regent of Spain, to repair the fortifications of St. Augustine. At that time he had served the Spanish Crown for nearly 23 years, beginning his military service as a private and advancing through the grades of ensign and captain to major and serving in Italy, Flanders, Guipúzcoa, and Extremadura. However, little is known about his experiences or even length of duty in those theaters. Nevertheless, his appointment as governor of Florida certainly capped his military career.
By 1668, the previous Castillo de San Marcos, a wooden structure, was in a very dilapidated condition. St. Augustine, built as an outpost which, by its location, indirectly defended the Spanish Caribbean and New Spain (Mexico), was never self-sufficient. The viceroy of New Spain was supposed to send a situado or subsidy from his coffers each year to support the garrison and town of St. Augustine. However, many years, this subsidy never came. By 1668 more than 400,000 pesos, or eight years' payments, were owed to Florida! The people of St. Augustine were close to starving, and there were certainly no funds to repair the old fort. The beams under the gun platforms, as well as the platforms themselves, were so rotten that they could no longer support cannon. The sea had washed out the shoreline, and waves crashed against the palisade.
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