Fort Matanzas National Monument

One of the most picturesque and undeveloped areas along northeast Florida's historic coast is Fort Matanzas National Monument. Just 14 miles south of St. Augustine, this area offers pristine beaches, nature trails and wildlife viewing. A free ferry ride across ...

Fort Matanzas National Monument

This National Monument commemorates the killing of nearly 250 French Huguenots by the Spanish, an act that gave the river and inlet the name Matanzas, Spanish for "slaughters." Spanish officials built a fort at the site 175 years later to ...

Fort Matanzas National Monument

The Spanish built Fort Matanzas in 1740-42 to control Matanzas inlet, the "back door" to St. Augustine.

Much earlier, in 1565, Spain had bloodily crushed here a French challenge to her control of Florida by killing the remnants of a French ...