Nice view titled La cathédrale de Saint-Augustin,  from wood engraving with fine detail and clear impression, nice hand coloring,  approx. page size is 19 x 12 cm, approx. image size is 12 x 7.5 cm. From: L'Amérique du Nord pittoresque Etats-Unis Canada, A.Quantin  et G. Decaux, éditeurs à Paris. 1880

This view was first published in Picturesque America, which was a two-volume set of books describing and illustrating the scenery of America, which grew out of an earlier series in Appleton's Journal. It was published by D. Appleton and Company of New York in 1872 and 1874 and edited by the romantic poet and journalist William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), who also edited the New York Evening Post.

Saint Augustine

oldest continuously settled city in the United States, seat  (1821) of St. Johns county, northeastern Florida, 38 miles (61 km) southeast of  Jacksonville; it is a port of entry on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, lying  between two saltwater rivers, San Sebastian (west) and Matanzas (east). Ponce de  León, in search of the legendary Fountain of Youth, landed there in 1513 and  took possession of the territory for Spain. In 1564 France established Fort  Caroline near the mouth of the St. Johns River, 25 miles (40 km) north. A year  later, in order to maintain Spanish sovereignty over Florida, Admiral Pedro  Menéndez de Avilés destroyed the French colony and founded the city, which he  named for St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo, upon whose feast day he had sighted  the coast. Except for the 20 years (1763–83) that Florida belonged to England,  throughout the following 256 years it was the northernmost outpost of the  Spanish colonial empire. Since 1821 it has been a part of the United States. A  symbol of Spanish power is the grim, massive Castillo de San Marcos, built in  1672; the oldest fort standing in the United States, it is now a national  monument. The city was plundered by the English sea raider Sir Francis Drake and  besieged by the British general and leader of the Georgia Colony, James  Oglethorpe; it became a refuge for Loyalists during the American Revolution and  during the Indian wars provided a prison for captured Seminole Indians,  including Osceola. Union troops occupied it the last three years of the American  Civil War.

Many Spanish colonial buildings and sites have been restored, including the  cathedral, Oldest House, and San Augustín Antiguo (a re-creation of the old  Spanish city). The economy is based on tourism (first promoted in the 1880s by  the financier-railroad magnate Henry M. Flagler, a pioneer in Florida  development), commercial fishing, and some industry. The Florida East Coast  Railroad has its headquarters and shops there. The city is the seat of Flagler  College (1968). Pop. (1992 est.) 12,188.