St. Augustine

Day 1 · ~0.8 km

1. 

   1

   Villa Zorayda Museum

   Franklin W. Smith's 1883 poured-concrete winter home modeled on the Alhambra, a museum since 1933

   Midday · 45 min · $

   Take the audio tour through the Moorish-style rooms and look for the family's collection, including the old rug the museum says was woven from cat hair in ancient Egypt. In the Nights of Lights season, look for the candlelight evening tours.

2. 

   2

   Lightner Museum

   Flagler's 1888 Hotel Alcazar, now a museum of Gilded Age collections, with a cafe in the old indoor pool

   Midday · 90 min · $

   Start in the garden courtyard of the old hotel, then work through the floors of glass, ceramics, Victorian furnishings and mechanical musical instruments that Otto Lightner called a collection of collections. Finish down in the drained hotel pool, now a cafe.

3. 

   3

   Casa Monica Hotel

   Franklin W. Smith's 1888 Moorish Revival hotel, sold to Flagler within months, a county courthouse, and a hotel again

   Evening · 30 min · free

   Walk around the outside first to see the towers, arches and balconies on Cordova and King streets, then step into the tiled lobby, and if you want to linger, have a drink at the hotel bar in the evening.

4. 

   4

   Governor's House Cultural Center and Museum

   A free University of Florida museum in the 1930s rebuild of the colonial governors' house on the Plaza

   Midday · 45 min · free

   Go in for the current exhibit on the town's art, archaeology or history, and look out for the courtyard where archaeologists found an 18th-century guardhouse and an old well. It is also a good place to cool off and use the restrooms.

5. 

   5

   Andrew Young Crossing

   Bronze footprints in the Plaza where Andrew Young was beaten leading a march on June 9, 1964

   Morning · 10 min · free

   Follow the eleven bronze footprints across the granite bands and read the words set in them, then look up at the Plaza around you and picture the night march that was attacked here.

6. 

   6

   Trinity Parish Church

   A Gothic Revival Episcopal church on the Plaza, begun for a congregation founded in 1821, with a Tiffany window

   Midday · 20 min · free

   If the doors are open, go in to see the stained glass, including a window by Louis Comfort Tiffany, and find the small chapel in the oldest part of the church. Outside, look at the coquina walls from the Plaza side.

7. 

   7

   Plaza de la Constitución

   The Spanish town square laid out under the 1573 royal ordinances, with the 1813 Constitution Monument at its heart

   Evening · 45 min · free

   Start at the white Constitution obelisk in the center, then walk the edges: the Cathedral on the north side, Trinity church, the Governor's House, the market pavilion and the civil rights memorials at the east end, and the bronze of Ponce de León facing the Bridge of Lions. Come back after dark, when the square is cooler and lit.

8. 

   8

   Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine

   The 1797 coquina cathedral facing the Plaza, home of a Catholic parish founded with the city in 1565

   Midday · 30 min · free

   Step in out of the heat, look up at the painted timber ceiling and the murals, and find the loft mural recalling the Minorcans who came in 1777. Outside, stand back in the Plaza to see the bell tower added after the 1887 fire.