St. Augustine's timeless beauty: St. Augustine's timeless beauty and spectacular architecture are things best enjoyed together.

Nov 23, 2008 (Sun Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- CLLO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- It's dusk as my husband and I walk among couples sharing kisses on the grassy field that surrounds the Castillo de San Marcos, an ancient fort where three countries battled for centuries to claim St. Augustine as their own.

"Make love. Not war," I joke. "Maybe the soldiers should have done that instead."

As it turned out, I'm glad they didn't. St. Augustine is ours and it was well worth the fight.

Where else can you play modern-day explorer and come face to face with nearly 500 years of history?

As hard-core history nerds, my husband and I naturally gravitate to America's oldest city, which predates the Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth Rock by 55 years.

Even before Spain colonized the area and named it St. Augustine, Ponce de Leon waded ashore somewhere around this northeastern coastal town in 1513.

His mission: to find gold, silver and the fabled Fountain of Youth.

OK, so that didn't pan out.

But as a destination, St. Augustine is filled with surprises and worth discovering.

For starters, do you know where Florida got its name?

Credit Ponce de Leon for that. He arrived around Easter and named the area Pascua florida -- feast of the flowers.

Ponce de Leon only lingered a few days. But the name -- it was a keeper.

Naturally, the city takes full advantage of its historic cachet to lure visitors. In a half-dozen trips, we've always coincidentally hit some historic anniversary, event or festival.

The city just kicked off its 15th annual Nights of Lights, which runs through Jan. 31 and includes dozens of events.

Throughout the holiday season, the city is aglow with millions of white lights, a tradition that traces its origin to the Spanish tradition of displaying a lighted white candle during the Christmas holidays.

Stepping out

But no matter when you go to St. Augustine, there's lots to see and more than one way to see it. If you're short on time and want a quick tour of the city, hop on a sight-seeing train or trolley, which offer narrated tours. For a slower pace, step aboard a horse-drawn carriage.

But we find the city of 12,000 nicely compact and perfect for walking.

Exploring the Old City district by foot, we meander along brick streets lined with coquina cottages topped with red clay roofs.

Everywhere we look, the Spanish architectural influence remains in the arches and tiles of hotels, museums and churches. Harder on the eyes is the overuse of "old," attached to descriptions of several aging buildings.

There's the old jail, the oldest wooden schoolhouse and the oldest drugstore, an unpainted cedar and cypress building that dates from the late 1800s. And on and on.

But for age and historic stature, our favorite stop is at St. Augustine's historical centerpiece. It's the diamond-shaped fort that has guarded the town since the late 1600s. Over the centuries fires and wars scarred the city, but the Castillo de San Marcos remains.

Carved from coquina stone, this massive gray fort stands sentinel on the Matanzas Bay, where boats bob gently in the water. Surrounded by a field of emerald grass, the fort is a tranquil sight in contrast to the bloody assaults that marked its past.

Throughout history it repeatedly changed hands among Spanish, English and American troops. These days the National Park Service guards the Castillo de San Marcos, whose storerooms, once filled with gunpowder and weapons, now feature mini museums highlighting its history.

Today on the gun deck, volunteers dressed as Spanish soldiers in scarlet-trimmed blue uniforms roll a cannon to the fort's edge. There, they load the weapon with wadding and gunpowder and fire at imaginary enemies on the bay.

The roar is ear-shattering as we hear history -- and smell it in the burning black powder.

Old favorites

When we decide it's time for some modern-day shopping, we head to St. George Street, 11 city blocks of pedestrian-only traffic, filled with specialty shops and boutiques.

A favorite: The Colonial Spanish Quarter Book Store, where we always find something of interest on Florida folkways, the brutal Seminole Indian wars and the state's Cracker culture and architecture.

For lunch, we hit an old favorite, the Santa Maria restaurant, built on the bay in 1954. As we arrive, we notice several employees huddled on the patio, fingers pointing at the water.

They wave us over, then step aside to give us the best view of a dozen manatees splashing through the water.

Though it's a tourist town, we're always struck by St. Augustine's small-town civility. And its sense of humor about being inundated with out-of-towners.

During another visit, we watched a group of locals who laughingly played a drinking game, sitting on a restaurant patio on the tourist train's route.

Every time the ubiquitous train rounded the corner and cruised past the restaurant, they raised their glasses and cheered.

Flagler's hand

First-time visitors to St. Augustine might be surprised to learn the tourist city has a major link to South Florida. It's the Flagler connection.

Before Henry Flagler became the Father of South Florida, he transformed St. Augustine into a tourist resort in the late 1800s. The co-founder of Standard Oil Co. lured wealthy Northern visitors escaping frigid winters to his personal playground, scented by orange groves and warmed by the sun.

For accommodations, Flagler commissioned two talented young architects, John Carrere and Thomas Hastings, to design two hotels. The Ponce de Leon, with its terra cotta tiles, trim and arches, opened in 1888. Then, directly across the street, he built the Alcazar.

That prestigious assignment launched the architects' careers, and they later designed the famed New York Public Library and the U.S. Senate office building. Architecture buffs will find both worth a tour.

The Ponce de Leon, which closed in 1967, is now Flagler College, a liberal arts school whose 2,000 students eat in a dining room with dozens of stained glass windows by Louis Tiffany and attend concerts in The Flagler Room, accented with ornate carved wood and imported marble.

Gigantic pool

The Alcazar Hotel once housed much of the entertainment for Flagler's pampered guests. Inside its decorative walls were Turkish baths, a casino and a gigantic indoor swimming pool, described as the largest in the world in 1888.

Today, the Alcazar is home to the Lightner Museum and offices for the city. It's fitting that another lover of beauty, Otto Lightner, a collector and founder of Hobbies Magazine, bought the hotel in 1946 while looking for a home for his eclectic collections.

Prized porcelain, antique toys, carved furnishings and musical instruments -- all trappings from the Gilded Age -- now fill the rooms where the privileged once partied.

Just a few blocks away is the Memorial Presbyterian Church, which Flagler built as a tribute to his daughter, who died giving birth.

Though Flagler eventually built a home 300 miles south in Palm Beach, he's buried in the mausoleum near his beloved hotels.

In the end, he went back to St. Augustine, where Florida's history runs deep.

Liz Doup can be reached at ldoup@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4722.

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