Who founded St. Augustine, the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the contiguous United States?

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine in 1565.

Menéndez was a Spanish admiral and Florida’s first governor. He established the settlement on September 8, 1565, and named it San Agustín after the feast day of Saint Augustine, which had occurred when his expedition first sighted the coast.

St. Augustine is recognized as the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in what is now the contiguous United States. Its founding predates Jamestown, Virginia, by more than four decades and predates the Plymouth Colony by more than half a century.

The area was already inhabited by Indigenous Timucua communities before the Spanish arrival. St. Augustine later served as the capital of Spanish Florida, became British briefly in the eighteenth century, and returned to Spanish control before Florida became part of the United States. Its long history makes it a significant site for America250-era historical interpretation.