Historedia
AmericasEvent

Start of Construction of Castillo de San Marcos

When
1672
Where
St. Augustine, Florida
Episodes
1

Construction of the Castillo de San Marcos began on October 2, 1672, in St. Augustine, Florida. Ordered by Spanish authorities following the 1668 English raid, the masonry fort was designed by Ignacio Daza and built from coquina stone quarried on Anastasia Island.

Episodes

  1. October 2, 1672 · St. Augustine, FloridaStart of Construction

    Construction of the Castillo de San Marcos began on October 2, 1672, in St. Augustine, Florida, following orders from Spanish colonial authorities.

Background and detail

Strategic Context. St. Augustine, founded in 1565, faced threats from English encroachment. The 1668 raid by privateer Robert Searles destroyed much of the town, prompting Governor Francisco de la Guerra y de la Vega to order a permanent masonry fortress to protect the settlement.

Building Process. Designed by Spanish engineer Ignacio Daza, construction started in 1672 under Manuel de Cendoya. Workers quarried coquina stone from Anastasia Island and ferried it across Matanzas Bay. The project lasted twenty-three years, with final blocks laid in 1695.

People involved

Sources

  1. Castillo de San Marcos Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-11
  2. St. Augustine, Florida Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-05

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.