Fuente de los Caños de San Francisco
The set of masks that decorate this fountain was a gift to the City of St. Augustine by its sister city in Spain, the City of Avilés, birthplace of Pedro Menéndez, founder of St. Augustine in 1565.
Presented in 2005 to the people of St. Augustine by the Mayor of Avilés, the Hon. Santiago Rodríguez Vega, the masks form part of the historic and cultural monuments that occupy the grounds of the Visitor Information Center.
The masks are reproductions of the six faces that serve as water spouts for the municipal fountain or caños in the San Francisco neighborhood of Avilés, the Caños de San Francisco is one of that city's most renowned historic landmarks.
Since the early twentieth century, St. Augustine and Avilés have maintained close ties, exchanging gifts and visits by citizens, public officials and students. In the 1920s, Avilés gave St. Augustine the casket and burial headboard of Pedro Menéndez and in 1972 a statue of the founder, which since then has stood before the front entrance to City Hall. In 1997, St. Augustine donated the anchor of the seventeenth century Spanish treasure ship, Nuestra Señora de Atocha, to the Anchor Museum Philippe Cousteau, on the Asturian coast near Avilés.
Marker is on Cordova Street, on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
