In the mid-1560s, as the
Spanish Empire expanded northward from the
Caribbean to unexplored Florida, it founded the colony of St. Augustine, which has become the oldest continuously occupied European settlement on the United States mainland. Spanish settlers immediately established a shrine of the
Catholic Church, the religion essential to the
Spanish monarchy throughout its history. From the mid-1500s to the mid-1600s, the
kingdom of Spain was undergoing a
Catholic Revival in opposition to the
Protestant Reformation. As the early colonists mainly were
sailors or
soldiers with little expertise in architecture, the first church of St. Augustine was of simple design and rapidly built of disparate materials. The original
parish was short-lived, burning to the ground in a 1586 attack on the town by the
Englishman Sir Francis Drake. Two decades previously, the colonists had hastily built a new church of straw and palmetto, which deteriorated quickly in the humid climate and burned down in 1599. A
tithe was raised in Spain, and in 1605, a third church was built, this time more permanently of timber by experienced architects and builders who had begun to make their way to the
New World. For 95 years, it stayed intact, though in disrepair, before again burning down in 1702 during a failed English attempt on the city by
Carolina Governor
James Moore. The church vanished for over ninety years, despite an attempt to rebuild in 1707, with royal rebuilding funds misspent on provisions, soldiers' pay, and graft by public officials. During the first half of the 18th century, priests held
Mass in St. Augustine's hospital, which became too small for the congregation and embarrassed it before the
Native American converts to Catholicism. From 1763 to 1784, Florida fell under
British rule, and reconstruction was forgotten. After Spain regained the colony in 1784, a new sense of pride in the citizenry led to the large-scale construction of the current church from 1793 to 1797. It became a cathedral in 1870 and a
minor basilica in 1976. ==Architecture==