Don Pedro Menendez de Avilés Birthday Celebration
The public is invited to join the City of St. Augustine for the annual Don Pedro Menendez de Avilés Birthday Celebration. Help mark his 507th Birthday with a brief, wreath laying ceremony at the base of his statue in front of City Hall. A processional by a group of re-enactors from Historic Florida Militia is included, as well as a reading of the proclamation by Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline.
When: Friday, February 13, 2026 at 11:00am.
Menendez, who founded the city on September 8, 1565, was born in Avilés, a port city in the Asturias region of Spain, on February 15, 1519. Following a career in the Spanish Navy during the reign of Spanish King Phillip II, his voyage to Florida in 1565 was in response to the French having founded Fort Caroline. The French were defeated soon after the arrival of Menendez and the establishment of St. Augustine.
The area in front of city hall was named Parque de Menendez in a ceremony on February 15, 1978, by the City Commission which was attended by the Ambassador of Spain to the United States. The statute itself is a replica of one in Avilés, given by “the People of Avilés, Spain to the People of St. Augustine, Florida” on September 8, 1972.
