Hopping on and off in
St. Augustine
One of the great
sightseeing “tools” that we’ve found in many cities is the “Hop On, Hop Off”
buses and trolleys. St. Augustine had
one and it helped us to see a lot of the historic points in St. Augustine in a
small amount of time (one day)!
St. Augustine is the
oldest continually occupied city in the United States - over 450 years old! It
was founded in 1565 by the Spanish Admiral, Pedro Menendez de Aviles. One of the first stops that we chose to hop
off at were the city gates. Perhaps when
the city was first founded, they were near the entrance to the city. Today, they are close to the historic part of
St. Augustine, but relatively in the middle of the city.
We decided to view the
city out of order, so we crossed the street at the city gates and entered the
old fort there, the Castillo de San Marcos.
For many years, this was the northernmost outpost of Spain’s New World
Empire. It is the oldest masonry Castillo
in the continental US. As we walked into
the Castillo, we were intrigued by the make-up of the walls. If you look closely, you can see that shells
were mixed in to create hardened shell rock, called coquina.
When we walked through
the entrance to the Castillo, we found ourselves in the courtyard of the Castillo. There were several doorways and windows in
this area – leading to the church, soldiers’ quarters, and cells for prisoners,
among other rooms. I truly loved the
look of the aged finish around the doors and windows. When the Castillo was in use and occupied,
this central courtyard was used for the soldiers to practice drills with their
muskets during peacetime. When St.
Augustine was under siege, this is also where the citizens would take refuge.
Something I found
incredibly interesting were the drawings that could be seen inside one of the
rooms. It wasn’t clear if this room was
for soldiers or prisoners, but regardless of that, both soldiers and prisoners
would draw and carve on the walls. They
are deteriorating with time, so that as of today, only faint tracings are
visible.
One of the more
interesting rooms was the toilet facilities.
It was really one room with a sort of trough running through it. As I imagine men primarily occupied the Castillo
during this time, seats in the toilet weren’t considered necessary! This toilet was a tidal toilet. Each day, twice per day, when the tides came
in and went out, water filled the trough with water and then carried the waste
out to sea.
I couldn’t help but be
amazed by the views when we climbed up to the top of the Castillo. Today, it gives you a great view of the city
of St. Augustine. Back during the time
when battles were fought here, it was a strategic advantage to be so elevated
over any invaders.
By 1740, the top of the
fort, called the gun deck, had over 60 cannons of various sizes. In the above two panels of images, you can see
some of the weaponry. The first panel
shows the front and back of a specific cannon, with the ammunition used
alongside. The second panel shows a
bombard on the left. When shooting a
bombard, some black powder was placed on the bottom, with a stone or explosive
device on top of it. The powder, when
lit, would launch the stone or device so that it would arc and fall down onto
the target, instead of being shot directly at it. The image on the right is just a bit of
engraving from another cannon, built in 1762.
After leaving the
Castillo, we hopped back on the bus, and saw some other sights around St.
Augustine. The lighthouse is now a
historic one, not active any longer. The
cross is the Cross of the Mission of Nombre de Dios. Back in 1565, Father Francisco Lopez de
Mendoza Grajales, the chaplain of the expedition led by Pedro Menendez de
Aviles celebrated the first Thanksgiving Mass on the grounds where the Cross
now stands.
One of the places where
the bus could not go was down the streets in the historic part of St.
Augustine. We walked down those streets,
and had a bite to eat at one of the pubs there.
I think the feeling of that area was best captured by sketches rather
than standard photography.
The last two stops of the Hop on Hop Off bus were places where we could certainly wet our whistles! The St. Augustine Distillery and San Sebastian Winery both offered tours and a tasting! Definitely a great way to end the day!
Enjoy!
If you want to read more
about the Castillo de San Marcos, click on this link:
