Castillo De San Marcos National Monument A Historical Spectacle For Today
The Castillo De San Marcos National Monument – also known as St Augustine Fort – is well worth a visit.
The Castillo De San Marcos National Monument is another great stop on the Red Train Tour (and the other St Augustine trolley tours).
At ‘The Fort’ we were just in time to see one of their many cannons being fired by men in 17th Century Spanish Colonial Uniform from about 1740.
It was a spectacle you shouldn’t miss!
In fact, I liked it so much I am breaking my usual rules and adding a You Tube video of it here.
Just make sure you follow the Sergeant’s orders to cover your ears at the right moment because it is LOUD! (Of course you could just turn the sound down – but where’s the fun in that?)
The Castillo De San Marcos National Monument was built by the Spanish in that era when everybody was fighting over the New World and Pirates regularly attacked Florida’s coast (and the English, the Portuguese and a few others).
Of course the Spanish thought they owned the place and the rest just wanted to own it so there was a pretty good reason to build a fort or two for defense purposes.
But you can probably see from this picture that they didn’t just use anything to build it. The Castillo De San Marcos National Monument – before it was a national monument of course – was built to last using over 500,000 blocks of coquina.
This is strange stuff!
It is a compound of phosphate, sea shells and some other bits and pieces. The main thing about its use in construction is that it is soft.
That doesn’t mean it doesn’t last – it means it absorbs the impact of projectile objects (like cannonballs) rather then breaking and shattering like stone would.
As well as that it is very quick and easy to work with.
When ships came and bombarded the fort they would spend all day at it with no significant effect.
Then, when the firing stopped, the Spanish would run out under cover of darkness and fill in any gaps or holes in the walls (and gather up a few spare cannonballs to fire back the next day!) and be ready for action again in the morning.
Boy, those Spaniards really knew what they were doing!
They spent 23 years building that fort but it has never been taken in battle so it seems to have been worth the time.
The whole feeling of the Castillo De San Marcos National Monument is one of tremendous historical significance combined with the “Wow” factor. You spend all your time there looking at things and saying “WOW! Did you see this?”
The cannon are not only EVERYWHERE they are also great places for photo calls and they have lots of information about the technicals of cannon (which I couldn’t follow because I’m only a girl).
If you are in St Augustine, do make sure you go to the Castillo De San Marcos National Monument – you’ll have a ball especially if you can arrange to catch one of their live demonstrations.
The picture below gives you all the price and opening details from Summer 2007.
Have a great visit!
More about Attractions in St Augustine
What else can I do in Florida?
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