For more than 450 years, St. Augustine’s connection to Spain has shaped the city’s identity. That influence can still be seen in its history, culture, street plan and architecture, but the relationship between the Ancient City and Spain is not simply something preserved in museums or commemorated with historic markers.
It remains an active relationship, one that generations of St. Augustine leaders and organizations have worked to sustain through cultural exchange, education, tourism, diplomacy and personal friendships. That work has now earned the city international recognition.
The Fundación Consejo España–Estados Unidos selected the City of St. Augustine as the recipient of the 11th Bernardo de Gálvez Award, honoring the city for its historical significance and its ongoing efforts to preserve and strengthen the shared legacy between Spain and the United States. Previous recipients of the award include the U.S. Library of Congress, the Meadows Museum and historian Stanley G. Payne.
For St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline, the recognition is much larger than any one project or administration. “I like to think that their award represents many, many years of just strong, strong relationship,” Sikes-Kline said.
St. Augustine was founded in 1565 by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, creating a natural historical connection between Florida’s oldest city and Avilés, Spain. Over time, local leaders transformed those historic ties into an ongoing relationship between the two communities. In 2024, St. Augustine and Avilés celebrated 100 years of their sister-city relationship, a milestone Sikes-Kline saw as an opportunity to reconnect with the original purpose of the partnership.
“We’re celebrating a hundred years,” she said. “I was able to kind of jump off of that. So, I put a delegation together to recreate that original delegation that was between Avilés and St. Augustine.”
The St. Augustine delegation included representatives from local government, the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce, the St. Johns Cultural Council, tourism organizations, Sister Cities and Flagler College. The group was intentionally broad. The original mission of the relationship encompassed education, culture, sports, tourism, trade and economic development, and organizers wanted modern counterparts in each of those areas to begin forming relationships of their own.
“We were hoping that friendships would develop because it always comes down to that,” Sikes-Kline said. “You meet with someone, you connect with them, you want to continue that.”
That philosophy has already produced new opportunities. Flagler College representatives connected with the University of Oviedo, developing a college-to-university relationship that goes beyond the traditional high school exchanges associated with the Sister Cities program.
“This is something new,” Sikes-Kline said. “This is the college to university level connection, which is really cool. And that’s what we were hoping would happen.”
The relationship extends well beyond St. Augustine’s sister-city partnership with Avilés. During the city’s 450th commemoration in 2015, St. Augustine hosted the US-Spain Council International Summit, bringing prominent business and government leaders from the two countries together in Northeast Florida. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia also visited St. Augustine that year.
In 2021, St. Augustine commemorated the 200th anniversary of Florida becoming a United States territory, with the Spanish ambassador, Spanish consul general and other Spanish dignitaries participating. The city has also supported scholarly work preserving Florida’s Spanish history, including the La Florida interactive digital archive.
The award also comes at a particularly meaningful moment as the United States commemorates its 250th anniversary. Bernardo de Gálvez, the Spanish military leader for whom the award is named, played an important role in the American Revolution by leading military campaigns against British forces and helping weaken British control along the Gulf Coast.
It is a chapter of American history that many people do not know. “Many people do not know that Spain played an important role in us winning the revolution,” she said. Spain’s opposition to Great Britain ultimately assisted the American cause through military action and other support, something Spanish organizations have increasingly sought to highlight as the United States marks 250 years since independence.
That history gives the award special relevance for St. Augustine, a city whose Spanish story began more than two centuries before the American Revolution. The foundation noted that St. Augustine serves as a living example of the Spanish influence on the communities, infrastructure and commerce that existed before and during the period that ultimately shaped the United States.
The city’s Spanish connection is also literally built into St. Augustine. Sikes-Kline points to the historic town plan as one of the clearest examples of how the city’s Spanish beginnings remain visible today. “For us it starts with the town plan,” she said. “The actual town plan, which is expressed in the plaza and the streets.”
Spanish settlements in the Americas were developed according to planning principles that organized communities around central public spaces and surrounding streets. Similar patterns can still be found in historic communities throughout the former Spanish territories. “If you go to Puerto Rico, you are going to see a similar plan,” Sikes-Kline said. “If you go to Cuba, you are going to see a similar plan in Havana.” That continuity is significant enough that St. Augustine’s colonial town plan is recognized as part of the city’s nationally significant historic landscape.
“That’s why our town plan is a national landmark,” Sikes-Kline explains.
The Fundación Consejo España–Estados Unidos describes St. Augustine as a “living bridge” between Spain and Florida, highlighting ongoing cultural, educational and tourism exchanges as well as efforts to preserve historic heritage. St. Augustine was not selected simply because Pedro Menéndez founded the city in 1565 or because Spanish history remains central to its tourism identity. It was recognized because generations of people have continued to maintain and strengthen that connection.
Sikes-Kline has seen evidence of those relationships firsthand. During a visit to the small Spanish hometown associated with Bernardo de Gálvez, she found reminders that other St. Augustine leaders had traveled there before her. “There is a little museum there,” she recalled. “And when we went we were like, look, Errol Jones has been here. So, you know, Bill Lennon has been here. Other commissioners over time have been there.” The museum contained artifacts and gifts exchanged during previous visits. evidence of a tradition Sikes-Kline said has become one of the most consistent parts of the relationship. “We always exchange gifts,” she said. “That’s probably the most consistent tradition that we have, is the exchange of gifts between mayors and friends.”
More than a century after St. Augustine and Avilés formalized their relationship, and more than 450 years after Spanish settlers established St. Augustine, people on both sides of the Atlantic are still traveling, collaborating, studying, celebrating and forming friendships. That, perhaps more than the age of the city itself, explains why St. Augustine received the Bernardo de Gálvez Award. Its Spanish history has never entirely become history.
“We are honored to be selected for this prestigious award,” Sikes-Kline said. “Recognition of this magnitude reinforces the value of our efforts and serves as an inspiration. It is critical that we continue to sustain our long-time friendship, which is deeply important and ties our great nations together.”
