What to See in St. Augustine - Top Sights and Attractions

17th-century fortress with drawbridges. The Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States; it is located on the western shore of Matanzas Bay in the city of St. Augustine, Florida.

It was designed by the Spanish engineer Ignacio Daza, with construction beginning in 1672, 107 years after the city's founding by Spanish Admiral and conquistador Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, when Florida was part of the Spanish Empire. The fort's construction was ordered by Governor Francisco de la Guerra y de la Vega after a raid by the English privateer Robert Searles in 1668 that destroyed much of St. Augustine and damaged the existing wooden fort. Work proceeded under the administration of Guerra's successor, Manuel de Cendoya in 1671, and the first coquina stones were laid in 1672. The construction of the core of the current fortress was completed in 1695, though it would undergo many alterations and renovations over the centuries.

Though built in part by Black slaves owned by the Spanish, the fort later served as one of the first entry points of fugitive slaves from British North America into Spanish Florida, where they were freed by the colonial authorities. This quickly led to the first free Black settlement in the future United States (Fort Mose, formed just north of St Augustine).

When Britain gained control of Florida in 1763 pursuant to the Treaty of Paris, St. Augustine became the capital of British East Florida, and the fort was renamed Fort St. Mark until the Peace of Paris (1783) when Florida was transferred back to Spain and the fort's original name restored. In 1819, Spain signed the Adams–Onís Treaty which ceded Florida to the United States in 1821; consequently, the fort was designated a United States Army base and renamed Fort Marion, in honor of American Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion. The fort was declared a National Monument in 1924, and after 251 years of continuous military possession, was deactivated in 1933. The 20.48-acre (8.29 ha) site was subsequently turned over to the United States National Park Service. In 1942 the original name, Castillo de San Marcos, was restored by an Act of Congress.

Castillo de San Marcos was attacked several times and twice besieged: first by English colonial forces led by Carolina Colony Governor James Moore in 1702, and then by English Georgia colonial Governor James Oglethorpe in 1740, but was never taken by force. However, possession of the fort has changed five times, all peaceful, among four different governments: Spain, 1695–1763 and 1783–1821, Kingdom of Great Britain, 1763–1783, and the United States of America, 1821–date (during 1861–1865, under control of the Confederate States of America).

Under United States control the fort was used as a military prison to incarcerate members of Native American tribes starting with the Seminole—including the famous war chief, Osceola, in the Second Seminole War—and members of western tribes, including Geronimo's band of Chiricahua Apache. The Native American art form known as Ledger Art had its origins at the fort during the imprisonment of members of the Plains tribes such as Howling Wolf of the southern Cheyenne.

Ownership of the Castillo was transferred to the National Park Service in 1933, and it has been a popular tourist destination since then.^[1]

Museum in St. Johns County, Florida. The World Golf Hall of Fame is located at World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States, and it is unusual among sports halls of fame in that a single site honors both men and women. It is supported by a consortium of 26 golf organizations from all over the world.

The Hall of Fame Museum Building was designed by the specialist museum architecture firm E. Verner Johnson and Associates of Boston. They also produced the museum master plan that established the size, mission and qualities of the museum and the surrounding facilities and site.

The Hall of Fame Museum features a permanent exhibition and a rolling program of temporary exhibitions. Designed by museum design firm Ralph Appelbaum Associates, the Hall of Fame and exhibition area contains exhibits on the game's history, heritage, and techniques; major players and organizations; golf course design, equipment, and dress.^[2]

Lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida. The St. Augustine Light Station is a private-aid to navigation and an active, working lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida. The current lighthouse stands at the north end of Anastasia Island and was built between 1871 and 1874. The tower is the second lighthouse tower in St. Augustine, the first being lit officially by the American territorial government in May 1824 as Florida's first lighthouse. However, both the Spanish and the British governments operated a major aid to navigation here including a series of wooden watch towers and beacons dating from 1565.

The current lighthouse tower, original first-order Fresnel Lens and the Light Station grounds are owned by the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, Inc., a not-for-profit maritime museum. The museum is open to the public 360 days a year. Admission fees support continued preservation of the lighthouse and five other historic structures. Admissions and museum memberships also fund programs in maritime archaeology, traditional wooden boatbuilding, and maritime education. The non profit mission is to "discover, preserve, present and keep alive the stories of the nation's oldest port as symbolized by our working St. Augustine Lighthouse."^[3]

The Oldest Wooden School House is a wooden structure located at 14 St. George Street in St. Augustine, Florida near the city gate. It is touted as being the oldest wooden school building in the United States. The exact date of construction is unknown, but it first appears on tax records in 1716. There are no extant wooden buildings in St. Augustine built prior to 1702 when the British burned the city. The oldest schoolhouse still standing in the United States is the Voorlezer's House built prior to 1696 and located in Historic Richmondtown in Staten Island, New York.

The building is encircled by a large chain, placed there in 1937, to help anchor it to the ground in case of a hurricane. The walls are made of bald cypress and red cedar which are held together by wooden pins and iron spikes, however, recent maintenance has replaced the roofing, among other fixes.

The schoolmaster and family lived on the second floor above the classroom and the kitchen was located in a separate building to reduce heat and threat of fire. The building originally belonged to Juan Genoply. The classroom was one of the first in the US to be co-ed, educating both boys and girls since 1788.^[6]

Museum in St. Augustine, Florida. Ximenez-Fatio House Museum is one of the best-preserved and most authentic Second Spanish Period residential buildings in St. Augustine, Florida. In 1973, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It was designated a Florida Heritage Landmark in 2012. The museum complex sits just south of the city's central Plaza de la Constitución at 20 Aviles Street, the oldest archaeologically documented street in the United States. It is located at the center of Old Town, the city's oldest continuously occupied community. Since 1939, the property has been privately owned and managed by The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in The State of Florida. Through their efforts, it was restored and interpreted to reflect its function as a fashionable boarding house during Florida's first tourist boom, which began after 1821. The property is a historic house museum, furnished and presented to tell stories of the visitors who lodged there, the women who owned and managed it, and how people lived during Florida's territorial period.^[11]

The Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park is a privately owned 15-acre park in St. Augustine, Florida, located along Hospital Creek, part of the Intracoastal Waterway. It has been touted as the likely 1513 Florida landing site of Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon, although no evidence has been found to substantiate this claim. Recent research by amateur historian Douglas Peck has placed another possible landing site in the vicinity of Melbourne Beach in Brevard County.

The park contains a well claimed to be the freshwater source referred to by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas in his Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos en las Islas y Tierra Firme del mar Océano and supposedly sought by Ponce de Leon, but there is no supporting evidence. Archaeological excavations made by Dr. Kathleen Deagan on the park's grounds in the 1990s uncovered remains of the first Spanish settlement and its fortifications in St. Augustine.^[13]

Home in St. Augustine, Florida. Villa Zorayda is a house at 83 King Street in St. Augustine, Florida. Built in 1883 by the eccentric Boston millionaire Franklin W. Smith as his winter home, it was inspired by the 12th-century Moorish Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain. Smith named it "Villa Zorayda", after one of the princesses in Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra. The building and part of Franklin Smith's art and antique collection were sold to Abraham Mussallem, a rug and antiquities merchant originally from Syria, in 1913. On September 23, 1993, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The Villa Zorayda Museum is still owned by the Mussallem family and contains the original art and antique collection assembled by Franklin Smith and Abraham Mussallem.^[14]

The St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum is a museum dedicated to pirate artifacts.

Formerly known as the Pirate Soul Museum, the museum was located at 524 Front Street, Key West, Florida, United States. It was announced in February 2010 that the museum was being moved to St Augustine, Florida. It reopened there on December 8, 2010, as the St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum.

The museum houses 48 individual exhibit areas, and over 800 artifacts inside. It has been proclaimed as the largest and most authentic collection of pirate artifacts ever displayed under one roof. Among its exhibits are Blackbeard's original blunderbuss, pieces of gold retrieved from his warship the Queen Anne's Revenge, one of only three remaining authentic Jolly Roger flags in the world, and Thomas Tew's original treasure chest, the only known authentic pirate treasure chest in the world.

In addition to the authentics, there are real cannons from the 1700s that guests are able to electronically fire off, as well as a Disney Imagineer's curated 3D Audio show, only existing in the St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum. There are also tours offered on the weekends by "Pirate Tour Guides" throughout the day.

The museum was started by entrepreneur Pat Croce.^[15]

Museum in St. Augustine, Florida. Government House, also known as Governor's House, is located at 48 King Street in St. Augustine, Florida, adjacent to the Plaza de la Constitución. The building, constructed of coquina, served as the governor's official residence from c. 1710 during the First Spanish Period, throughout the British Period, and until 1812 in the Second Spanish Period. Governor Gonzalo Méndez de Canzo was the first governor to build his residence on the present Government House site in 1598.

A new structure was built on the site in 1706 for use as a residence, office, courthouse, and the social center of the town. The east wing of the present building dates to the original construction between 1706 and 1713. Due to the 1763 Treaty of Paris, Florida passed into British ownership. During the British Period, the house was the official residence of James Grant, the British royal governor of East Florida (1764–1771). Among his guests were American explorer Daniel Boone, who was in East Florida to inquire about land purchases, and Patrick Tonyn, who was appointed as Grant's successor.

At the close of the American Revolution, Florida and St. Augustine were returned to Spain by the 1783 Treaty of Paris. General Nathanael Greene visited Government House in 1784, hosted for an elaborate seven-course meal by Governor Vicente Manuel de Zéspedes. From 1785–87 the governor’s residence again underwent major renovation. The last governor to use the house was Enrique White during the Second Spanish Period; he died in 1811.

By the time Florida was annexed by the United States in 1821, the building was in ruins with only the walls remaining. In 1833–34 Government House was rebuilt with federal funds, following plans drawn up by architect Robert Mills, later famous for designing the Washington Monument. The structure incorporated existing walls and contained 16 rooms, including space for a post office, a courtroom, and other federal functions. During the American Civil War federal troops were headquartered in the building.

In 1873 another major remodeling took place, using plans by architect William M. Kimball. Through the next 60 years the post office and customs house gradually took over more and more of the building as the town grew. In 1937, Government House was once again renovated by Jacksonville architect Mellen Clark Greeley as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. The U.S. Postal Service continued to use the building until 1965, when a new post office building was constructed. Government House was transferred to the State of Florida in February 1966 as a public monument to be administered by the St. Augustine Historical Restoration and Preservation Commission (later renamed the Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board).

The Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board used the 1937 wing of the building for a research library, archaeological and curatorial laboratories, and historical displays until the board became defunct in 1997. Today, the ground floor of the building is open to the public as Governor’s House Cultural Center and Museum, managed by UF Historic St. Augustine, Inc. A research library managed by the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida is housed on the second floor.

During their tour of St. Augustine on April 1, 2001, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía of Spain made a public appearance on the east balcony of Government House. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain also visited Government House on September 17, 2015.

Government House was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 7, 2014.^[19]

Bascule bridge in St. Augustine, Florida. The Bridge of Lions is a double-leaf bascule bridge that spans the Intracoastal Waterway in St. Augustine, Florida, United States. A part of State Road A1A, it connects downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island across Matanzas Bay. A pair of copies of the marble Medici lions guard the bridge, begun in 1925 and completed in 1927. They were removed in February 2005 and returned in March 2011.

Roads & Bridges magazine named the Bridge of Lions as fourth in the nation's top 10 bridges for 2010. Projects were evaluated based on size, community impact and challenges resolved.

The United States Department of Transportation declared the bridge "structurally deficient and functionally obsolete" in 1999, prompting heated debates on what to do with the structure. A restoration plan was approved, but opponents continued to voice their opposition. Reynolds, Smith & Hills from nearby Jacksonville was awarded the engineering and design contract, estimated at $77 million, and projected to require five years to complete.^[20]

Cemetery in St. Augustine, Florida. The Huguenot Cemetery in St. Augustine, Florida located across from the historic City Gate was a Protestant burial ground between the years 1821 and 1884. The Spanish colonial city of St. Augustine, along with the entire Florida Territory became de facto American possessions after the 1819 signing of the Adams-Onis Treaty. The actual physical occupation of the city and Florida territory occurred in 1821.

Prior to American occupation the Spanish city of St. Augustine was predominately Catholic and the only burial ground within the city, the Tolomato cemetery, was reserved for Catholics. Recognizing a need for a formal Protestant burial ground an area just outside the city gate was chosen by the new American administration in St. Augustine. The first burials occurred in 1821 just prior to a yellow fever epidemic which claimed the lives of a large numbers of the city's inhabitants.

The cemetery until title to the cemetery property was acquired by the Rev. Thomas Alexander, who then turned over it to the Presbyterian Church in 1832, burials continued until 1884 when both Huguenot and Tolomato cemeteries were closed. The cemetery is believed to hold at least 436 burials according to city records. The cemetery although named "Huguenot Cemetery" isn't believed to contain any members of the Huguenots, a French Protestant sect started in the 16th century in France.^[21]

Museum in St. Augustine, Florida. For the Oldest House Museum in Key West, Florida see Old Island Restoration Foundation

The Oldest House Museum is located in St. Augustine, Florida in St. Johns County, Florida. It is operated by the St. Augustine Historical Society and includes the González-Alvarez House, the Manucy Museum (named for Albert Manucy) of local history and the Edwards Gallery.

The Oldest House, from which the museum derives its name, is located on a site that has been occupied since the 1600s. Formally known as the González-Alvarez House, it is the oldest surviving Spanish Colonial dwelling in Florida. The building dates back to the early 1700s. The house has been open to visitors since 1893. The United States Department of the Interior designated the house a National Historic Landmark in 1970.^[26]

Ripley's Believe It or Not! is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the Believe It or Not feature proved popular and was later adapted into a wide variety of formats, including radio, television, comic books, a chain of museums and a book series.

The Ripley collection includes 20,000 photographs, 30,000 artifacts and more than 100,000 cartoon panels. With 80-plus attractions, the Orlando, Florida-based Ripley Entertainment, Inc. a division of the Jim Pattison Group a Canadian global company with an annual attendance of more than 12 million guests. Ripley Entertainment's publishing and broadcast divisions oversee numerous projects, including the syndicated TV series, the newspaper cartoon panel, books, posters and games.^[30]

Vast park with an on-site history museum. Fort Mose Historic State Park is a U.S. National Historic Landmark, located two miles north of St. Augustine, Florida, on the edge of a salt marsh on the western side of the waterway separating the mainland from the coastal barrier islands. The original site of the 18th-century fort was uncovered in a 1986 archeological dig. The 24-acre site is now protected as a Florida State Park, administered through the Anastasia State Recreation Area. Fort Mose is the "premier site on the Florida Black Heritage Trail". In 1738, the Spanish governor of Florida, Manuel de Montiano, had Fort Mose constructed and established it as a free black settlement, the first to be legally sanctioned in what would become the territory of the United States. The fort has also been called Fort Moosa or Fort Mossa, variants of the Spanish pronunciation.^[31]