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The Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States. Located on the shore of Matanzas Bay in the city of St. Augustine, Florida, the fort was designed by the Spanish engineer Ignacio Daza.
Two of the first books I read as a young adult (meaning I read them because I wanted to) were J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" (actually I think I read "The Hobbit" 12 times or so, and LOTR at least 5) and yes, I am still a huge fan "my precious".
Anyway, as I was looking for interesting vantage points for painting the Castillo de San Marcos, I walked around the North corner, where the bell tower is located. As I did, I gazed SouthEast noticing that I could see the St. Augustine Lighthouse... and, sure enough the title "The Two Towers" popped in my head... If you are familiar with LOTR you will certainly understand the reference.
By the way, I was curious, so I used maps.google to determine that the distance between the two towers is approximately 1.6 miles.
This was a fun study of the coquina masonry work and textures. The Castillo is a masonry, star shaped, fort made of a stone called coquina, Spanish for "small shells". Coquina is made of ancient shells that have bonded together to form a type of stone similar to limestone. During the construction of the fort, Workers were brought in from Havana, Cuba in addition to using Native American laborers. The coquina was quarried from the 'King's Quarry' on Anastasia Island in what is today Anastasia State Park which is across Matanzas Bay from the Castillo. The coquina blocks were ferried across the bay to the construction site. Construction began on October 2, 1672 and lasted twenty-three years, with completion in 1695.
Thank-You Jayells for supporting the local Art Scene
