Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
PANAMÁ VIEJO'S TREASURE TRAIL
If you've buffed up on your history while touring Casco Viejo, you'll probably already
be familiar with the tale of
Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Panamá
, to give Panamá
Viejo its full name. The original site of the Pacific settlement was established in 1519 by
the infamous Pedro Arias de Ávila. Despite the surprisingly swampy location, Panama City
prospered; by the early seventeenth century, it boasted an impressive cathedral, seven con-
vents, numerous churches, a hospital, two hundred warehouses and around five thousand
houses, driven by the city's commercial importance as the Pacific terminal of the Spanish
Crown's
treasure trail
, sending silks and spices from the East and plundered silver and
gold from Peru to Europe via the isthmus. This trade route necessitated the construction
of a huge customs house, a treasury and a mint located in the most heavily fortified area
of the Casas Reales (Royal Houses), the symbol of the Spanish Crown's might, originally
separated from the rest of the city by a moat and wooden palisade.
Following the Welsh pirate
Henry Morgan's sacking of the city
in 1671, the place was
razed to the ground. Little more than a pile of rubble now remains of these once impressive
buildings, a result of some of the original stones being quarried for construction of the new
city, coupled with modern governments' neglect, although the Iglesia del Convento de la
Concepción and the cathedral bell tower have been restored.
Museo del Sitio de Panamá la Vieja
It's worth visiting the
Museo del Sitio de Panamá la Vieja
first, as it will help orientate
you. The two-storey block contains some interesting exhibits with information predominantly
given in Spanish though with some summaries in English. The top floor displays items dis-
covered during archeological excavations, described in greater detail on the ground floor.
There are some exquisitely preserved
pre-Columbian artefacts
- though labels are often
frustratingly absent - together with pottery, coins and utensils from colonial times, and a use-
ful interactive
scale model
of the city in 1671.
The convents
Once outside the museum, backtrack 100m to peer over at the
Puente del Matadero
(“Bridge
of the Slaughterhouse”), named after the neighbouring abattoir, which marked the western
limit of the old city. Returning east along the shoreline, continue along the gravel path a
few hundred metres past extensive mud flats being probed by hundreds of migrating waders.
Passing the scarcely visible or recognizable Iglesia y Convento de la Merced - which sur-
vived Morgan's assault and was relocated to Casco Viejo - and the Iglesia y Convento de
San Francisco, cross the road at the speed ramp, turning east down Calle de la Empedrada.
To the left stands the well-preserved
Iglesia del Convento de la Concepción
, the city's only
convent for women, built in 1597. Peer over the nearby wall and you'll find the impressive
