inSPIREd Sunday

Sally and Beth host inSPIREd Sunday!  Sundays in my City  My Sunday Photo

December 2016 - St. Augustine FL

Click here for more of the Fountain of Youth.

Within the grounds of the Fountain of Youth park is the 1587 Mission of Nombre de Dios.

In 1587, Franciscan friars constructed the first mission in the continental United States right here on the grounds of the Fountain of Youth. The location of this Mission, however, was a mystery that revealed itself little by little. It began in 1934 when a gardener planting an orange tree discovered a skeleton, which proved to be a Timucuan. Over time, a large number of Timucua burials were exposed in the Park, and the pattern and position of their burials revealed the true location of the 1587 Mission of Nombre de Dios.

To reconstruct the Mission, a new archaeologically appropriate site was chosen. The structure was built using historically correct methods wherever possible using local cypress, which was known to 16th century Spaniards to be durable and resistant to wood-eating insects. The Mission church features a choir loft and rustic altar and uses a palm thatch roof. The floor is crushed coquina, as is the area around the church.