St. Augustine

The county seat of St. Johns County, about 40 miles south of downtown Jacksonville on the Atlantic coast. Founded by Spanish settlers in 1565, it is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in what is now the contiguous United States. Here is every Jax Times story about the city, plus the guides people ask about most.

Sept. 8, 1565Founded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés
14,329Residents, 2020 census
40 milesSouth of downtown Jacksonville
1672Construction begins on Castillo de San Marcos

St. Augustine news and guides

5 stories

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About the city

Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine on Sept. 8, 1565, and named it San Agustín because his fleet first sighted Florida on Aug. 28, the feast day of St. Augustine. The Timucua had lived in the area long before the Spanish arrived. The city was the capital of Spanish Florida for more than 200 years and later of British East Florida.

Henry Flagler turned the city into a winter resort in the 1880s. His Hotel Ponce de Leon opened in 1888 and is now home to Flagler College, a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1968. Civil rights protests in St. Augustine in 1964 drew national attention and helped build support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Today visitors come for the Castillo de San Marcos, the pedestrian St. George Street, Nights of Lights each winter and the beaches on Anastasia Island and at Vilano. The city had 14,329 residents at the 2020 census, up from 12,975 in 2010.

Population figures from the U.S. Census Bureau (2010 and 2020 counts). Fort dates from our Spanish forts guide.

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