Trials and Tribulations: A Guide to St. Augustine’s Colonial Period

If the creation of 13 British colonies in the United States marked the nation’s birth, then its conception started with the carving out of St. Augustine, a Spanish colony in Florida. On this walking tour, you’ll traverse the very streets where this continent’s first successful colonists established a permanent settlement, and take in monuments that serve as reminders of St. Augustine’s early days.

Our tour starts at the statue of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, who established St. Augustine. You’ll go on to find the Juan Ponce de Leon Memorial, where I’ll tell you why this Spanish Conquistador named the land he claimed La Florida. As you make your way through America’s oldest city, you’ll hear about the trials and tribulations of the Spanish citizens and soldiers who carved a life out of this foreboding land. Having faced competition and several sieges from other colonial powers, they built the ancient fortress, Castillo de San Marcos, now a national monument. You’ll find out more about the city’s early defenses at the Santo Domingo Redoubt museum, before ending the tour at the Tolomato Cemetery, the city’s first official catholic burial ground.

Along the way, you’ll have a chance to:

• See the historic Bridge of Lions, one of the city’s cultural icons
• Pass the Cathedral Basilica of St Augustine and learn why, in 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued a papal decree allowing the Spanish to colonize this area
• Hear about the odds that Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles had to overcome to establish St Augustine, the oldest permanent settlement in what is now the United States
• Discover how small fledgling colonies were constantly under threat, and understand the measures they took to defend their existence here
• Find colonial St. Augustine’s center, the Plaza de la Constitución, and spot the oldest Spanish constitutional monument still in existence
• Learn about Don Juan Ponce de Leon, the famous Spanish explorer who claimed La Florida
• Walk the Matanzas Bay seawall and hear about the colony’s bloody beginning
• Gaze upon Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest stone fortress in the United States

By the end of this 45-minute walking tour of St. Augustine, you’ll have immersed yourself in the amazing story of an unlikely colony that persevered against all odds.