Our Story... Life was hard enough for the Spanish soldiers assigned to St. Augustine. Duty at Matanzas only added to their misery. Still, theirs was an important job -- guarding St. Augustine's "back door" against British and pirate attacks. The park also commemorates one of the earliest conflicts between two European nations over land and ideals in the New World. One hundred and seventy-five years before the fort was built, approximately 250 French Huguenots were killed by the Spanish, an event that gave the river and inlet the name "Matanzas", Spanish for massacres. Today, Fort Matanzas National Monument is an island of hope in a sea of development along the shore, protecting almost 300 acres of pristine salt marsh, dunes, scrub, and maritime forest as well as the plants and animals whose home it is. | 
