Captain Morgan wasn't the only one to take advantage of people in Panamá City...

I went to see the old city of Panamá last weekend, or, more correctly, I went to see the old cities.  ThePanamá Viejo) is now just a ruin.  it was quite an extensive city that was planned on a grid structure.  You can still see the remains of the old Plaza Mayor (Main Square) with the tower of the Cathedral which still stands.  Like many ruins this one has suffered from people "borrowing" stones for building so in recent years it has received a degree of protection.

Tower of Cathedral

original city of Panamá (

What is less protected, however, is the tourist and visitor who comes to see the place.  When we pulled up we were met by a very officious man who told us that the entrance fee was $5.00 and that it was easier to pay him directly as the office had just closed.  The problem is that if you pay him you know that he actually has no official role at the monument; if you don't pay him he will almost certainly vandalise your car - it's a Catch 22 situation.  Of course, there is always the option of deciding that you don't want to visit the ruins after all but, having spent almost an hour in heavy traffic to get there, that is unlikely.  So we paid our money and went in to visit.

A number of buildings survive - among them a number of churches.  This is probably due to the fact that the family dwellings were likely to have been of wood and haven't survived the ravages of time and weather.  There is evidence of some elaborate architectural features with fluting on columns and that sort of thing.

This city, probably about the size of your average Irish mid-sized town, would have been the residence of the Governor who supervised life in Panamá on behalf of the Spanish crown in the 17th century.  It was during this century, in fact, that the city was destroyed by fire.

Captain Henry Morgan

The legendary Welsh pirate, Captain Morgan, was the cause of its downfall.  Having fallen victim to many attacks by pirates and corsairs, the citizens of Panamá City did their best to defend themselves - they established defences to repel attacks from the sea.  Captain Morgan, however, was a bright man.  He landed further down the coast, thus outflanking the city's defences.  He raided the city and razed it to the ground.  After this attack the inhabitants decided to move the site of the city to its present site which is further in to the bay and more defensible.  This is where we went to visit the historical centre of the city, the Casco Viejo.


More of that visit tomorrow
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Ruins of Dominican Church

Tree covered in vines like the ones Tarzan used to swing on