The Minorcan Experience — 2025

The Minorcan Experience presents St. Augustine's Minorcan heritage with a month of activities in historic downtown from March 1 through 22, 2025.

The month of activities starts with the Menorcan Heritage Celebration, hosted by the Menorcan Cultural Society.

• Saturday, March 1, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Menorcan Heritage Celebration. For more about the Menorcan Heritage Celebration, go here.
  • Where: Llambas House, 31 St. Francis Street

The Minorcan Experience presents three additional free activities in March:

• Saturday, March 8, 2025, at 1:00 p.m., Historian Sandie A. Stratton, M.A., discusses her paper, "From the River to the Sea: Upwardly Mobile Minorcans and Florida's Beachside Development."
  • Where: The Dunham Building, 271 Charlotte Street (behind the Oldest House Museum)
• Saturday, March 15, 2025, from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m., Dedication of the Minorcan Memorial Plaque, a gift of Robert P. Jones. After the dedication, stay to learn more about the Minorcan Tolomato Cemetery, where the first Minorcans were buried in St. Augustine. Each tour lasts about 20 minutes.
  • Where: The Tolomato Cemetery, 14 Cordova Street
• Saturday, March 22, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. Dr. Ann Browning Masters, Poet Laureate of the City of St. Augustine and the Menorcan Cultural Society reads from her book, Floridanos, Menorcans, Cattle-Whip Crackers: Poetry of St. Augustine.
  • Where: The St. Augustine Waterworks, 184 San Marco Ave.

Admission: All Events are FREE and open to the public.

When: March 1 through March 22, 2025

Where: Locations vary by event. 

Minorcan History

The term "Minorcan" describes the group of Mediterranean people (about 1,400 in all) who came to British East Florida in the late 18th century to work as indentured servants on a plantation settlement in New Smyrna. Many of these were actually from the island of Minorca. Still, they were joined by many others who were from other Mediterranean towns and regions, including Greeks, Italians, Corsicans, French, and Spanish.

Their first years in Florida were harsh and their numbers decreased, but in 1777, they were granted a space to settle in the northwest section of the fledgling port town of St. Augustine. They have been an integral part of the nation's oldest city ever since.