Panama City - Panama - page 90

Also facing the Plaza Mayor were the Cabildo de la Ciudad (City Hall) and
the Casas de Terrín , houses built by one of the city's wealthiest citizens, Fran-
cisco Terrín. Most of the better houses were built from timber and placed wall to
wall, with small inner courts, open-air kitchens and separate wings for the ser-
vants. Some had ground-floor galleries and balconies, and most had plain exterior
walls. A few of the fancier homes were built from stone and their ruins remain. The
poor had far simpler dwellings, usually thatched huts built with cheap materials
such as reeds.
The center of power resided at Casas Reales (Royal Houses), a complex
ringed by timber ramparts and separated from the city proper by a moat. Within
the complex were the customs house, the royal treasury, a prison and the gov-
ernor's house. Despite the obvious historical importance of the site, past govern-
ments have allowed sections of the property to be used as a landfill and for horse
stables. Only scattered walls remain of the once impressive structures.
Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción , built between 1619 and 1626,
is the best-preserved building. In traditional fashion, it was designed so its two side
chapels gave the cathedral a crosslike shape when viewed from the heavens. The
bell tower was at the back of the church and may have served double duty as a
watchtower for the Casas Reales. The main facade, which faced the Plaza Mayor, is
gone - only the walls remain.
Immediately north of the cathedral are the massive ruins of Casa Alarcón ,
the town's best-preserved and largest known private residence, which dates from
the 1640s. Just north, Iglesia y Convento de Santo Domingo is the best-pre-
served church. The convent dates from the 1570s, though the church was built 20
or more years later.
Iglesia de San José belonged to the Augustine order. Of special interest here
are the building's vaulted side chapels, an architectural feature seldom seen in
Panama.
Puente del Rey is visible from Av Cincuentenario near the northern edge of
town. Built in 1617, it may be the oldest standing bridge in the Americas.
TOP OF CHAPTER
1 Panamá Viejo
Founded on August 15, 1519, by Spanish conquistador Pedro Arias de Ávila, the city of
Panama was the first European settlement along the Pacific. For the next 150 years it
profited mainly from Spain's famed bullion pipeline, which ran from Peru's gold and sil-
ver mines to Europe via Panamá. Because of the amount of wealth that passed through