Pensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and by yourself incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. At the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal city of the Pensacola Metropolitan Area, which had an estimated 502,629 residents in 2019.

Pensacola is the site of the first Spanish treaty within the borders of the continental United States in 1559, predating the commencement of St. Augustine by 6 years, although the unity was and no-one else due to a hurricane and not re-established until 1698. Pensacola is a seaport upon Pensacola Bay, which is protected by the barrier island of Santa Rosa and connects to the Gulf of Mexico. A large United States Naval Air Station, the first in the United States, is located southwest of Pensacola near Warrington; it is the base of the Blue Angels flight confrontation team and the National Naval Aviation Museum. The main campus of the University of West Florida is situated north of the city center.

The Place was originally inhabited by Muskogean-speaking peoples. The Pensacola people lived there at the become old of European contact, and Creek people frequently visited and traded from present-day southern Alabama and Mississippi and southeast of Louisiana. Spanish fortune-hunter Tristán de Luna founded a short-lived agreement in 1559. In 1698 the Spanish usual a presidio in the area, from which the militant city gradually developed. The Place changed hands several get older as European powers competed in North America. During Florida’s British rule (1763–1781), fortifications were strengthened.

It is nicknamed “The City of Five Flags”, due to the five governments that have ruled it during its history: the flags of Spain (Castile), France, Great Britain, the United States of America, and the Confederate States of America. Other nicknames include “World’s Whitest Beaches” (due to the white sand of Florida panhandle beaches), “Cradle of Naval Aviation”, “Western Gate to the Sunshine State”, “America’s First Settlement”, “Emerald Coast”, “Red Snapper Capital of the World”, and “P-Cola”.