Jacksonville is one of the largest cities in the US state of Florida. The city’s history started with Frenchman Jean Ribault, who in 1562 sailed up St. Johns River and claimed the area for France, who two years later established Fort Caroline here. In 1565, Spanish troops attacked the fort, captured it and named it San Mateo. Florida became British in 1763 and they established Cow Ford at St. Johns River, which continued to grow when the area became Spanish again in 1783.

Florida has been American since 1821 and the Americans developed the city and named it Jacksonville after the governor and later president Andrew Jackson. Later in the 1800s, the city developed into a favorite tourist spot for wealthy Americans, and visitors arrived by steamship and railroad in increasing numbers. In 1901, much of Jacksonville was destroyed in a violent fire, but the city was quickly rebuilt and continued to grow.

Today, you can make some lovely walks in downtown Jacksonville, which you can enjoy in Florida’s mild climate. In the center is James Weldon Johnson Park, where the city’s city hall is located. The town hall was built in 1912 as St. James Building, which housed a department store in what was the city’s largest building. The city government later acquired the building, which was opened as a town hall in 1997. At the square you can also see MOCA, which is Jacksonville’s museum of contemporary art.

In the streets south of James Weldon Johnson Park are some of Jacksonville’s old high-rise buildings like The Carling from 1925 and the so-called Laura Street Trio, which are three neighboring buildings from the years 1902-1912. If you go east, you can visit three of the city’s churches, the Catholic Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, First United Methodist Church and St. John’s Cathedral, which belongs to the Episcopal Church. A little to the south is the Florida Theatre, which opened in 1927 in the Mediterranean-inspired architecture of the time.

You can take a nice walk along St. Johns River as well with long promenades in the center of the city, which form the Jacksonville Riverwalks. From here you can enjoy the view of Main Street Bridge, which is Jacksonville’s best-known bridge and one of the city’s landmarks. The Main Street Bridge opened in 1941 with a center section that can be raised when ships pass. South of the bridge is Southbank, where you find the beautiful Friendship Fountain and the Museum of Science and History.

At the museum you can see both permanent and changing exhibitions in science and local history. From the area, there is a fine view of Jacksonville’s skyline with skyscrapers, and the most characteristic of the high-rises is the Wells Fargo Center, which was built in 1972-1974 with a pyramidal base and a roof height of 163 meters. The skyscraper was the tallest in Florida until 1981 and the tallest in Jacksonville until 1990, when the 188-meter-tall Bank of America Tower opened.

In the outskirts of downtown Jacksonville there are more things to see and explore. To the southwest is the city’s old railway station, Jacksonville Terminal, which today forms part of a conference center. The terminal opened as Union Station in 1919, and it replaced the former station from 1895, parts of which can be seen in the area. In this part of the city, you can also visit the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens with interesting art and some fine gardens in English and Italian style.

There are several beautiful green spaces as the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens north of the city, and you can also take a trip east to Fort Caroline along the St. Johns River. The fort formed part of the French effort to settle Florida in 1564. However, the current Fort Caroline is a recreated version of the French fort, which was established on the site believed to be where the French fort once stood. At the fort, you can take a nice walk in nature to, for example, the monument in memory of Jean Ribault.