St. Augustine

• St. Augustine was the first permanent European settlement in the United States.

• It was founded by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, from Spain, in 1565.

Ruins of St Augustine

Pedro Menendez de Aviles

St. Augustine

• St. Augustine was founded forty-two years(4 decades) before the English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, and fifty-five years(5 ½ decades) before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts - making it the oldest permanent European settlement on the North American continent.

St Augustine Florida is the nations oldest city. (2006)

Catholic saint for which St. Augustine was named

Pedro Menéndez de Aviles

• Pedro Menéndez de Aviles, landed in Florida and established a colony among the Timucua Indians.

• He named it St. Augustine on September 8, 1565.

Sept. 8, 1565: Pedro Menéndez de Avilés lands in St. Augustine and he and his men share a feast with the natives.

Timucuan Indians

The Birth of St. Augustine

• Menendez and his crew had planned to sail up the St. Johns River to Fort Caroline, a French settlement. But Menendez soon discovered that French ships blocked the mouth of the river. Menendez withdrew and sailed to a smaller harbor just south of Fort Caroline. Here they set up a camp and began to call it St. Augustine. Of the original 2,000 people who started the voyage, only 800 arrived on the Florida shore.

• With the help of the Timucuan Indians, Menendez and his men built a fort. On September 8, 1565, he officially named it St. Augustine.

• This became the first permanent settlement in the United States. He then claimed all of Florida for Spain

Pedro Menendez de Aviles Claims land for Spain

First known sketching of early Timucuan Indians-1564

A History of St. Augustine• On September 8, 1565, with much pomp

and circumstance and 600 voyagers cheering, Menéndez set foot on the shores of Florida.

• In honor of the saint whose feast day fell on the day he first sighted shore, Menéndez named the colonial settlement St. Augustine. Menéndez quickly and diligently carried out his king's instructions. With brilliant military maneuvering and good fortune, he removed the French garrison and proceeded to consolidate Spain's authority on the northeast coast of Florida.

• St. Augustine was to serve two purposes: as a military outpost, or PRESIDIO, for the defense of Florida, and a base for Catholic missionary settlements throughout the southeastern part of North America.

A military outpost, or PRESIDIOCatholic headstone in 1565