St. Augustine, Florida #5 - Plaza de la Constitucion

I was watching the History Channel the other day and noticed that a New England state claims to be the home of the oldest public park in the United States. I have never really understood why much of the rest of the country seems to forget that St. Augustine, Florida, was settled 55 years before the first Pilgrim waded ashore at Plymouth Rock.

In fact, the oldest public park in the United States is not in the Northeast. It is the Plaza de la Constitucion in downtown St. Augustine.

This beautiful tree shaded park was established by Spanish Royal Ordinances in 1573, just eight years after St. Augustine was founded and 47 years before settlers arrived in New England. The ordinances required that the plaza be established for public uses in the center of the city, oriented to the principal compass points with a length equal to one and one-half times its width. It maintains these coordiantes to these days.

The Spanish officials and citizens of St. Augustine built many of the public structures of the city so that they would face the plaza. Among those still standing are the restored Goverment House, built in 1706-1713, and the magnificent Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine, a National Historic Landmark built in 1793-1797.

The cannon seen today on the Plaza de le Constiticion were once part of the armament of the nearby Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine's massive Spanish fort. The plaza also includes the only public memorial in the United States to a foreign constitution. It honors, in part, a Spanish constitution enacted when Florida was still a Spanish colony.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/staugustineplaza.

St. Augustine, Florida - Part One

This post begins a new series on beautiful and historic St. Augustine, Florida.

The oldest permanently occupied settlement in the continental United States, St. Augustine was already more than 40 years old by the time the English arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, and had been a thriving community for 56 years when the first Pilgrim set foot on Plymouth Rock. The number of "oldests" and "firsts" in the historic city is truly amazing.

Among them are the nation's oldest house, oldest masonry fort, oldest public park and oldest wooden schoolhouse. The Catholic Church has been active in St. Augustine since 1565, making it the oldest active religious organization in the United States.

Founded in 1565 by the Spanish military leader Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the city initially served as a fortified outpost against French expansion along the Atlantic seaboard. Soldiers from St. Augustine destroyed the French settlement of Fort Caroline at present-day Jacksonville, putting its garrison to the sword. Those who escaped the slaughter were captured near Fort Matanzas National Monument a short time later and were also massacred.

With the French presence in Florida thus exterminated, the Spanish settled into a centuries long effort to colonize Florida and built the city of St. Augustine.

Beginning with the next post, I will explore some of my favorite historic sites in the old city. Until then, you can learn more by visiting www.exploresouthernhistory.com/staugustine1.

Plaza de la Constitucion - St. Augustine, Florida

The historic Plaza de la Constitucion in St. Augustine is America's oldest public park.

Established by Spanish Royal Ordinances in 1573, this park was in use for 30 years before the first English settler set foot at Jamestown, Virginia, and nearly 50 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymoth Rock, Massachusetts.

Throughout the Spanish era of St. Augustine's history, the public and government buildings of the city faced the plaza, which still retains the design specified in the original ordinances calling for its establishment. Archaeologists have found the remains of a well dating back to the 1600s in the Plaza de la Constitucion and it is the only known park in the United States with a monument dedicated to a foreign constitution, the Spanish Constitution of 1812.

Today the Plaza remains a popular park in St. Augustine. The shade of its trees cool visitors to the nation's oldest city as they explore the numerous historic attractions of the old Spanish settlement. Among the structures still facing the Plaza is the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine, built in 1793-1797 and the Government House, built in 1706-1713.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/staugustineplaza.