Panamá Viejo

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Panamá Viejo, which means Old Panama, is the ruined first city of Panama City on the Pacific coast. It lies in the suburbs of today's capital. Spanish settlers founded it on 15 August 1519, and it was the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific Ocean.

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At a glance

Country: Panama
Location: Panama City, Panama
Built: 1519

Quick answers

Where is Panamá Viejo?

Panamá Viejo is in Panama City, Panama.

When was Panamá Viejo built?

Panamá Viejo was built in 1519.

Ruins of the first European city on the Pacific; after the pirate Henry Morgan sacked it in 1671, the cathedral tower still stands.

The city grew rich as a base for expeditions toward Peru and as a place where gold and silver were gathered to be shipped to Spain. In 1671 the Welsh privateer Henry Morgan attacked and destroyed it. Today the ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, together with the historic district of Panama City, listed since 1997. The cathedral tower still stands.

How did the city start?

The settlement was founded by Pedro Arias Dávila with about 100 settlers. It replaced two earlier cities, Santa María la Antigua del Darién and Acla. In 1521 a royal decree made it an official city, and Charles V of Spain gave it a coat of arms. Soon it became the starting point for expeditions to Peru and a main base where gold and silver were sent on to Spain. From 1520, merchants from Genoa, in Italy, controlled much of the trade here for a hundred years.

The attack and the ruins

In 1671 Henry Morgan, a Welsh privateer, destroyed the original city. The people later built a new Panama City at a different spot, and the old one was left in ruins. What remains is a field of broken walls and the tall stone cathedral tower, which still stands today. A visitor can walk among the remains and imagine the busy port town that once stood here. The ruins and the new historic district together are protected by UNESCO.