If you flew over Pensacola Bay, you would see that it has many natural forms of protection. Sandy barrier islands defend the narrow entrance into the bay and rolling hills provide excellent vantage points to watch ships arrive. The many colonial European groups who settled near Pensacola Bay understood the benefits of this natural landscape.

To bolster the area’s natural protection, both the Spanish and the British built a series of fortifications between 1698 and 1781. Colonists constructed most of these defenses near the water as ships posed the greatest threat to their settlements. The most prominent of these fortifications was located in downtown Pensacola, between what is now Seville Square and Plaza Ferdinand. Although this fort is no longer visible above ground, archaeologists have learned a great deal about Spanish and British life in Pensacola by excavating the area where the fort once stood.