Did You Know... St. Augustine

Did you know the City of St. Augustine was the last place Osceola stayed before being transferred out of Florida as a prisoner? St. Augustine's Castillo de San Marcos housed the great Seminole leader Osceola for two months in the winter of 1837 before he was transferred to Charleston, S.C., where he died one month later. The stone coquina fort was built by the Spanish beginning in 1672, and has the distinction of having never been captured. Known as Fort St. Mark during Florida's British Period, the Castillo was known as Fort Marion in Florida's Territorial Period during Osceola's imprisonment. The fort was decommissioned in 1900 and named a national monument in 1925.

Do you know how many times a king and/or queen of Spain have visited St. Augustine in its 437-year history? Once. Although the City of St. Augustine was founded on September 8, 1565, and lived under Spanish rule for more than 200 years, it was not until April 1, 2001, that a sitting king and queen of Spain made a visit to the city. St. Augustine proudly hosted King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia for a brief four-hour visit that included a public address to more than 5,000 people gathered in the Plaza de Constitucion, lunch with 200 guests at the Casa Monica Hotel, a walk along St. George Street shaking hands with startled and delighted visitors and residents of the city, and a tour of the Colonial Spanish Quarter Museum and the Castillo de San Marcos. Reprinted from Quality Cities March/April 2004 Back to City Trivia Home