Panama Vieja

Panama Vieja

Panama Vieja is a historical park and museum where the ruins of the first permanent Spanish settlement - founded in 1519 as Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion de Panama.

It was founded by Spanish conquistador and colonial administrator Don Pedro Arias Davila, and originally had only 100 inhabitants. At that time it was the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific Ocean. Shortly after its creation the city became a starting point for numerous expeditions to Peru, as well as a strategic base from which the gold and silver was sent to Spain.

The city lasted for 152 years, and by 1670 already had a population of over 10,000 people. However, on January 28, 1671 Panama City was sacked by the famous English pirate Henry Morgan. Morgan attacked the city a troop of 1,400 men marching from the Caribbean coast through the jungle, and defeated the city's militia. It is unclear whether it was Morgan's pirates who started a fire, or whether the Captain General Don Juan Pérez de Guzmán was the one who ordered the gunpowder magazines exploded to prevent the settlement passing into the English hands. Be as it may, the city was burned to the ground and completely destroyed. Two years later the settlement was moved to a new location five miles away, and a new city, now known as Casco Viejo, rebuilt. (#Panama, #kosher, #PanamaVieja, #CascoAntiguo)