Mission San Luis de Apalachee
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Mission San Luis de Apalachee
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| Location | Leon County, Florida, USA |
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| Nearest city | Tallahassee, Florida |
| Coordinates | 30°26′56.72″N 84°19′11.66″W / 30.4490889°N 84.3199056°WCoordinates: 30°26′56.72″N 84°19′11.66″W / 30.4490889°N 84.3199056°W |
| NRHP Reference # | 66000266 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| Designated NHL | October 15, 1966 |
Mission San Luis de Apalachee (also known as San Luis de Talimali) was a Spanish Franciscan mission built in 1633 in the Florida Panhandle, two miles west of the present-day Florida Capitol Building in Tallahassee, Florida. It was located in the descendent settlement of Anhaica (also as Anhayca Apalache or Inihayca) capital of Apalachee Province. The mission was part of Spain's effort to colonize the region, and convert the Timucuan and Apalachee Indians to Christianity. The mission lasted until 1704, when it was evacuated and destroyed to prevent its use by an approaching militia of Creek Indians and South Carolinians.
The site where the mission stood was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
Apalachee Province was one of the most powerful and wealthy chiefdoms or provinces in Florida and the Apalachee were the most advanced native peoples in Florida surpassing the Timucua, Potano, , and Calusa. The Apalachee were part of the Mississippian culture of mound builders and had well-established administrative and religious systems.
In 1528, Pánfilo de Narváez is the first recorded European presence in Apalachee setting up camp south of Anhaica near present day St. Marks. In 1539, Hernando de Soto wintered at Anhaica (in present-day Tallahassee) celebrating the first Christmas in the North America. In 1607, some Apalachee Indians requested friars and the first ones visited in 1608. In 1612 the Apalachees made a formal request for a mission but the Spanish did not oblige. In 1625 Apalachees began to send food supplies overland to St. Augustine, the major point of Spanish control over shipping and defense of La Florida. The Spanish, however, needed the densely populated and extremely fertile Apalachee Province to provide labor and provisions for St. Augustine.
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