Qualla: Panama Viejo

Panama Viejo: Introduction

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ivo Kruusamägi, CC BY-SA 4.0. Henry Morgan wrote it plainly: "There we were forced to put out the fires of the enemy's houses; but it was in vain, for by 12 at night it was all consumed that might be called the City." On January 28, 1671, the first European city on the Pacific coast of the Americas -- a place that had stood for 152 years, grown to 10,000 inhabitants, and funneled the gold and silver of Peru toward Spain -- ceased to exist in a single night of flame. What survived became Panama Viejo, a field of stone ruins in the suburbs of the modern capital, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.

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Image: Ivo Kruusamägi | CC BY-SA 4.0

Panama Viejo: The First Pacific City

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ivo Kruusamägi, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pedro Arias Davila founded the settlement on August 15, 1519, with about a hundred colonists. It was the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific Ocean, replacing the failing cities of Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien and Acla on the Caribbean side. Two years later, Ch...

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Image: Ivo Kruusamägi | CC BY-SA 4.0

Panama Viejo: Fire, Plague, and Pirates

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Charlotte Elton, CC BY-SA 3.0. The city endured catastrophe with stubborn regularity. Fires in 1539 and 1563 destroyed large sections but failed to halt growth. Pirates and indigenous warriors from Darien raided repeatedly in the early seventeenth century. An earthquake on May 2, 1620 damaged many buildings. T...

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Image: Charlotte Elton | CC BY-SA 3.0

Panama Viejo: Morgan's Sack

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rodrigo Guerrero, CC BY 2.0. Morgan's force reached the plains outside the city on January 28, 1671. Though outnumbered and facing cavalry and heavy guns, the English defeated Panama's militia. What happened next remains disputed three and a half centuries later. The city's viceroy, Don Juan Perez de Guzman,...

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Image: Rodrigo Guerrero | CC BY 2.0

Panama Viejo: Ruins in the Suburbs

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Garcia.dennis, CC BY-SA 4.0. Today Panama Viejo sits in the eastern suburbs of Panama City, its stone cathedral tower rising above a landscape of modern apartment blocks and shopping centers. The ruins include the remains of convents, the Casa de los Genoveses where Genoese merchants once conducted their tra...

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Image: Garcia.dennis | CC BY-SA 4.0