Saint Augustine is the oldest city in the United States. It was founded in 1565 by the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés on the site of an ancient Native American village and not far from the place where Ponce de Léon had landed in 1513, when he first discovered Florida. The city was burned and sacked by the English buccaneers Sir Francis Drake in 1586 and Captain John Davis in 1665. Attacks by South Carolinians in 1702 and 1703 were repelled, just as in 1740, when by English general and philanthropist James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, tried to take the city. The city passed to the English in 1763, at the end of the French and Indian Wars, the North American colonial wars between Great Britain and France in the late 17th and the 18th centuries.

During the American Revolution, Tories flocked to the city from the North but they left when it reverted to Spain in 1783. In 1821, Spain ceded Florida to the United States. Saint Augustine grew rapidly until the Seminole War of the 1830's. Union troops occupied the city in March 1862 and held it throughout the Civil War.

Nowadays, Saint Augustine is a port of entry to the United States. It is an important shrimping and commercial fishing center, as well as a popular year-round resort. The economic mainstay is tourism, supplemented with revenues from small industries.

There are several interesting sights in the city. Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the United States. The fort was built between 1672 and 1696. It was Spain's northernmost outpost on the Atlantic in the Americas and it is now a national monument. Fort Matanzas is also a national monument. The Spaniards built it in 1742. The old schoolhouse reputed to be the oldest in the United States. It is thought that is was built in the late 16th century. Saint Augustine's cathedral was constructed from 1793 to 1797. It has been partly restored. Saint Augustine is home to Flagler College.

Accommodation and restaurants are widely available in Saint Augustine. The city is located on a peninsula between the Matanzas and San Sebastian rivers. It is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by Anastasia Island. The Intracoastal Waterway passes through the city. Saint Augustine is in the northeast of Florida, 300 km southeast from Tallahassee and 1130 km south from Washington D.C.