America's oldest city was founded by Spain

In 1565, the Asturian sailor Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine on the coast of Florida. It was no makeshift fort or temporary camp: it was a city, with streets, a parish church and neighbours.

When the English founded Jamestown, their first lasting colony, St. Augustine had already been standing for 42 years. When the Mayflower reached Plymouth, the Spanish city was turning 55 and was on its third generation of inhabitants.

St. Augustine is still there today, proudly the oldest continuously inhabited European-founded city in the United States. Its Castillo de San Marcos, built of coquina stone, is the country's oldest masonry fort.

The urban history of the United States doesn't begin in English. It begins in Spanish — with an Asturian accent.