St Augustine

Port, holiday resort, and administrative headquarters of St Johns County, northeast Florida, USA, situated on a peninsula between the Matanzas and San Sebastian rivers, 56 km/35 mi southeast of Jacksonville; population (1990) 11,700. A port with the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway passing through it, it also relies on fishing, shrimping, and the processing and shipping of local produce and lumber. Tourism is vital to the local economy. Flagler College (1967) is in the city.

The oldest continuously settled US city, it was founded in 1565 on the site of an American Indian village by Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, near the 1513 landing place of Ponce de León. Twice burned by English buccaneers (Francis Drake in 1586, John Davis in 1665), it passed to England in 1763, and was a Tory refuge during the American Revolution. It reverted to Spain in 1783, and was ceded to the USA in 1821. A military post in the Seminole War, it was occupied by Union troops during the Civil War. Many historic buildings remain; among its best-known landmarks are two national monuments: the city's massive Castillo de San Marcos (1672), the oldest masonry fort in the USA, and Fort Matanzas (1740), 13 mi/21 km SSE, both built of native coquina (calcified shells).