Place

Artillery Complex 2

The second Artillery Complex room is accessed from the adjacent Artillery room. The exhibits in this room focus on the cannons at the Castillo.  The room comes to a point at the north wall. There is a low door on the east wall that leads to the powder magazine.  Moving from left to right from the entrance, the exhibits, in English and Spanish, include:  Weapons at the Castillo Exhibit. An interactive pyramid of cannon balls sits on a wooden platform next to the exhibit panel. You can try to lift the balls. The text explains that cannons were the Castillo’s defense against enemies. The cannon balls weighed anywhere from two and 40 pounds. Behind the exhibit panel is a rack with reproductions of long poles with attachments at the tips: Pads, scoops and scrapers.  Other Projectiles and San Marco Cannon Exhibit. A tactile cannon sits at the base of this exhibit. It is a bronze cannon made in Spain around 1700. Above the cannon, a panel shows photos of different types of projectiles or shots that could be fired from a cannon to damage a ship’s rigging and sails. Some start fires, destroy equipment, or decimate attacking infantry.  Ignacio Daza. 1620 to 1672. Text explains that Daza, a military engineer and architect, selected the site for the fort and designed the plan for the fortress. An illustration shows Daza with shoulder length black hair and a tidy black mustache. He has a high forehead and a long nose. He wears a black jacket over a white collared shirt with lace on the edges. A wide blue sash crosses over his body from his left shoulder. He holds up a plan for the fort and points at it.  Spanish Defense Network Exhibit. An aerial photo taken from above the fort. An illustrated section of the fort. A historic map of St. Augustine. An illustration of men firing a cannon from the top of a fort. The text explains that Spain created an elaborate system of defenses to protect its trade routes. For the Spanish colonists, the Castillo played a key role.

Quick Facts

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

The first room in this northeast corner was the artillery quarters during the Second Spanish Period (1784 to 1821). The next casemate was the ordinance supply room where tools and materials for serving the cannons were kept and issued. The small narrow room once housed a ladder to the gun deck to make transporting gunpowder quicker. The tiny doorway you see here is the entrance to the original gunpowder magazine. The Spanish realized soon after construction that the little room was too humid to store powder, so they used it for storage and as a trash pit during the 51 days of the 1702 Siege. Eventually, a new magazine was built in the northwest corner. When the Spanish renovated the Castillo in the mid-1700s, the old magazine and the ladder room were sealed, not to be opened again until 1833, when the U.S. Army was performing their own modifications.

Castillo de San Marcos National Monument

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Last updated: February 11, 2021