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‘These cultural ties are important’: St. Augustine officials celebrate 100-year relationship with Spanish city

Officials from St. Augustine and Avilés, Spain, gather for a 100 year celebration. (News4Jax)

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The City of St. Augustine is celebrating a 100-year relationship with a city in Spain.

In 1924, an American delegation from St. Augustine traveled to Avilés, Spain, following the Treaty of Paris. This officially ended the Spanish-American War.

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The delegation went to rebury the remains of Pedro Menéndez, who is widely known as the founder of St. Augustine.

Officials from St. Augustine and Avilés, Spain, gather for a 100 year celebration. (News4Jax)

In return, the city of Avilés gifted Menéndez’s original coffin to the City of St. Augustine — and those exchanges have continued a century later.

In August, a delegation from St. Augustine traveled to Spain. And a delegation from Avilés came to Florida as a part of the weekend celebrations.

“It is wonderful,” St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline said. “We are so happy to have all of our visitors come in and join in and welcome our delegation from Avilés, Spain, our sister city. The city that we’ve had 100 years of good relations with and it’s just a wonderful feeling.”

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It was a full weekend slate of cultural events to celebrate the connection between the two cities. There were concerts, art walks and Founder’s Day celebrations since Thursday.

Arch at Avilés Street. (News4Jax)

The celebration continued Sunday with the city of St. Augustine with the unveiling of a 100th anniversary interpretive marker and a rededication of a tile mosaic that was gifted to St. Augustine in 2002.

Those festivities continued with merchants, museums and gardens along Aviles Street inviting the public to enjoy exhibits, events, music, and food.

“These cultural ties are important to us, St. Augustine,” Sikes-Kline said. “We celebrate our history and our culture and it’s important to do that with real life people and to make it personal, so developing these relationships and building these relationships, that’s very important to us.”

The Avilés Street Festival included reenactors representing Spanish soldiers, residents and dignitaries from old St. Augustine that strolled Aviles Street.

Avilés Street in St. Augustine. (News4Jax)

The street itself has a history that stretches far beyond just 100 years.

The city says Aviles Street was recorded on maps as early as the 1570s. That has allowed the city to claim it as the oldest mapped-out street in the country.


About the Author
Chris Will headshot

Chris Will has joined the News4JAX team as a weekend morning reporter, after graduating from the University of Florida in spring 2024. During his time in Gainesville, he covered a wide range of stories across the Sunshine State. His coverage of Hurricane Ian in southwest Florida earned a National Edward R. Murrow Award.

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