|
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in the 1966, the Castillo represents the oldest masonry fort and the most significant example of 17th-century Spanish colonial architecture in the United States.
[ By Michael Wisenbaker • Photography by Ray Stanyard ]
On the shores of Matanzas Bay, the Castillo de San Marcos maintains its 330-year-old vigil over the City of St. Augustine. This ancient fortress once served to protect Spain's vast fleets as they sailed home with treasures plundered from the New World. Since 1565, when Menendez de Aviles laid claim to Florida for Spain, nine successive wooden forts guarded the city. English privateer Francis Drake torched one of these forts in 1586. Eighty-two years later, English pirate John Davis set another one ablaze. Termites and Florida's damp climate quickly consumed the other wooden forts.
After Davis razed St. Augustine, killing or capturing many people there in 1668, local Spanish officials sought a way to protect themselves and their galleons from the envious English. Although St. Augustine offered no riches, Spain felt that if San Marcos fell into enemy hands this might encourage foes to pillage more prosperous Spanish holdings such as Cuba and Mexico. The crown eventually came up with enough money and supplies to erect a masonry fort. Work on the Castillo began in 1672 and ended in 1695.
Ignacio Daza, a Spanish engineer living in Cuba, designed Castillo de San Marcos. Local Indians, Black slaves and Spanish soldiers toiled alongside skilled stone masons from Cuba and Spain. Hand-cut coquina blocks were quarried from nearby Anastasia Island. This soft limestone formed locally from naturally cemented seashells. Laborers then applied tabby, composed primarily of lime and oyster shells, as mortar to hold the blocks together.
From above, San Marcos resembles a star with four large points (bastions). It contains more than 20 rooms, which once housed weapons, medical supplies, rations and quarters. The fort's perimeter measures 320 feet. It boasts 30-foot high walls, which range in thickness from 10 to 14 feet on the bottom to five feet at the top. A 40-foot-wide moat, lined with coquina, surrounds the fortress. The Spanish term "castillo" fits it well since the fort's moat and drawbridges mimic those of Europe's medieval castles.
|
.
