St. Augustine, Florida, founded in 1565, is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the contiguous United States.
Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded the settlement on September 8, 1565. Spain established it to strengthen its claim to Florida and protect routes used by the Spanish treasure fleets moving through the region.
St. Augustine predates Jamestown, the English settlement founded in Virginia in 1607, by more than four decades. It also predates Plymouth, founded by English colonists in 1620. These comparisons concern continuous occupation and European-founded settlements, not the age of Indigenous communities.
The city’s Spanish heritage remains visible in its street plan, architecture, and historic fortifications. Castillo de San Marcos, built beginning in 1672, is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States.
St. Augustine is not the oldest continuously inhabited European-origin city in every United States territory: San Juan, Puerto Rico, was founded earlier, in 1521.