Which Florida city was founded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565?

St. Augustine was founded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565.

Menéndez, a Spanish admiral and explorer, established the settlement on September 8, 1565. He named it San Agustín because the expedition sighted the Florida coast on August 28, the feast day of Saint Augustine. The settlement developed into Spain’s principal base in Florida.

St. Augustine is widely described as the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement within the continental United States. That wording matters: Indigenous peoples had lived throughout the region for thousands of years, and other European settlements were founded at different times or later abandoned. The claim concerns continuous European-established habitation, not the first human settlement in North America.

The city remained under Spanish control for most of the colonial period, became British from 1763 to 1783, and returned to Spanish rule before becoming part of the United States in 1821. Its long history makes St. Augustine an important site for understanding the centuries of European colonial competition that preceded American independence.