OLD SPANISH CHIMNEY AND WELL

These ruins are all that remain of what was probably a Spanish barracks which housed the quarry overseer, master masons, and stonecutters who were involved in the construction of the Castillo de San Marcos. The quarry, located directly across the road from this site, contained rich veins of coquina which the Indian workers shaped into rough blocks. Under the supervision of the quarry overseer, Alonso Diaz Mejia, the blocks were transported by wagon and then by raft to the site of the Castillo. Completed in 1695, the great fortress was the keystone of the Spanish system of defense of Florida.