Plaza de la Constitución

As St. Augustine is the oldest city in the continental United States, so the Plaza de la Constitución is the oldest public park. It was established in 1573 by order of the king of Spain. Public buildings surrounded the plaza in the Spanish period and some still stand. The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Augustine faces one side of the plaza, and on another stands the historic Government House that was once Florida's capital and is now a museum. The Constitution in the Plaza's name is not that of the United States, but the short lived Spanish Constitution of 1812. The monument to that document in the Plaza still stands, unlike those in Spain itself, which were destroyed by order of Ferdinand VII when he was recalled to the throne in 1813. The Plaza also holds a seventeenth century well and a Confederate Veteran's Memorial. The four cannons in the park once defended the walls of Castillo de San Marcos. A surprising amount of Florida's history has taken place on the Plaza. Here Florida was ceremonially transferred from Spain to the United States. Here the slave market stood, and on Labor Day of 1963 a young black dentist called Robert Hayling led 100 blacks in a demonstration march toward that symbol of oppression, resulting in the arrest of a quarter of them. In the summer of 1964 black citizens of St. Augustine marched in silence each night around the Slave Market. In June of that year Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested there. Every Thursday night in summer citizens gather here to enjoy free concerts. During the nights of the holiday period from November to January the Plaza blazes with two million tiny white lights limning the branches of ancient oaks and tracing the outlines of historic buildings.