Fort Matanzas (not Mantanzas, Mom just called it that.) was a 17th century Spanish fort near St.Augustine. It is pretty basic, It is square with 3 levels including the ground. It had a white flag with St.Andrews cross ( a red cross with the branches unevenly lopped off) flying over the fort.
It was built out of a special rock called coquina. Coquina was the only rock they could find in the area. Coquina is made up of millions of little seashells (coquina, Spanish for little seashell.) “glued” together with calcium carbonate. They didn’t know how strong it was until battle. The coquina literally absorbs the shock and uses the cannon ball to enforce the wall. (that was before explosive shells.)
St.Augustine was ruled by the Spanish 1512-1762, by the English 1762-1784, by the Spanish 1784-1821, and by the U.S 1821-now. There were 5 cannons but now there are only 4, 2 English and 2 Spanish at Fort Matanzas. St.Augustine was only given away by treaty, although the English did try to take it over by battle.
St.Augustine was taken over by the Spanish to store their loot while they sailed to Spain. Fort Matanzas was built to protect St.Augustine from pirates coming in the back-ways. The pirates always got scared and surrendered. Fort Matanzas was technically the first coastguard station.