Constructed and maintained by the Spanish from 1671 through the Revolutionary war the Castillo de San Marcos is now
maintained by the National Park service and is a national monument. In my vacation to Orlando my wife and I took a nice drive up to St. Augustine to see the historic town and this famous fort. The most surprising feature to me was that although the fort is constructed in the
Vauban style, it's built based on an inner square and has four sides, which makes adhering to the Vauban geometry somewhat difficult. Still it's a stunning fortress complete with a ravelin protecting the gatehouse and a dry mote, which at times in the fort's history was flooded and at others kept as a safe holding area for livestock to support the garrison.
The fort features several original artillery pieces, some on reproduction carriages and some barrels without carriages for display. Of particular interest was a pair of very ornate mortars with a bore of about 8-10 inches.
With my club starting work on a group project for some Pirate games, the visit to the fort was just what the doctor ordered for inspiration. Additional photos are available in our
club's photo gallery.
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4 comments:
Great pics, thanks for sharing!
Interesting shots of the mortar - wonder why it doesnt have any wheels on it like th other cannon?
St Augustine is one of our favorite vacation spots. The fort can not be visited too many times. Did you drive the RV?
We flew. The drive from New Hampshire would be about 28 hours in the RV which is 3 full days of driving. I don't like to drive the RV more than 8-10 hours per day. That means 6 travel days to get to/from Florida. To do that I'd need 2 weeks off. Some day maybe. Until then we fly to Florida twice a year - once each spring and once each fall.
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