If age confers wisdom, no destination in the continental United States is as sagacious as St. Augustine. That’s because people have been living in St. Augustine since 1565, making it the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the contiguous United States. And its Spanish influence—forged in violence, cultivated by faith, and nourished by time—permeates the city.
Much of St. Augustine’s survival can be traced back to the masonry fort of Castillo de San Marcos, with its drawbridges and bell tower made of locally quarried and artillery-absorbing coquina shell. Built by Spanish settlers in 1672, it was later used by the militaries of the conquering British and then the United States, before its decommission in 1900.
Hispanic history is also cultivated in nearby Mission Nombre de Dios, home to America’s oldest Marian shrine, Our Lady of La Leche, circa 1677. Meandering through the grounds of the shrine, it’s easy to see why President John F. Kennedy, who visited the site just a month before his 1963 assassination, referred to it as the country’s “sacred acre.” Visitors walk amid a rosary garden and a still-active cemetery, whose graves include important nuns and, controversially for the time, Union soldiers from U.S. Colored Troop regiments.
But even in America’s sacred acre, reminders of the conquest reverberate. Every now and then, cannon fire from the neighboring Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park resounds across the property, a symbol of the city’s surreal straddle between past and present, and between historical sobriety and a tourist economy.
The fountain itself is anticlimactic given its stature—situated in a cave, it is preserved as twin streams of metallic-tasting water trickling from a pottery vase. Outside this main attraction, a planetarium show reveals how Ponce de Leon used celestial navigation to discover Florida. Interpreters dressed in period garb roam the grounds, burning incense in the modest mission church and explaining early tool use and the relationships between Spanish colonizers and the native Timucuans they encountered there.
All the while, the fountain’s famed peacocks strut around with impunity, their crests jutting from their crowns like tufted toothpicks, their screeches piercing the historically charged air. Introduced to the park in the 1960s as a Christian symbol of immortality, they are just one of the many creatures and communities that have found refuge in this eternal city.
Where to Stay
One of St. Augustine’s newest hotels, the AC Hotel by Marriott is part of the brand’s Spanish-inspired line. Located on the San Sebastian River and just a short distance from the bustle of downtown, the 142-key property will host a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration September 20 with music, dancing, cuisines, and culture from Puerto Rico, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, and more. Its restaurant’s version of huevos de cazuela, a Spanish breakfast staple served in a piping-hot casserole dish, is a must-order.
