HISTORY

Panama La Vieja was founded on August 15, 1519 by the Spanish Pedro Arias Dávila

(Pedrarias). Its foundation replaced the towns of Acla and Santa María la Antigua del

Darién to become the capital of Castilla de Oro in 1520.

Its first name was Our Lady of the Assumption of Panama, the name of the old Catholic

temple located in the Plaza Mayor of Panama Viejo, where the famous tower of the

Cathedral is located.
 BIOGRAPHY

Pedro Arias Ávila (Segovia, c. 1440-León, 1531) Spanish soldier and administrator.

Appointed governor and captain general of Castilla del Oro, in 1514 he went to America at

the head of an expedition.

In his desire to maintain power and increase the territory, he ordered the execution of

Núñez de Balboa (1519) and Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (1526).

Due to his harshness, he made many enemies and was removed from his position (1526),

but he took over the governorship of Nicaragua (1527), which he held until his death and

managed to expand with successive conquests.

PEDRO ARIAS AVILA

 FIRST SETTLERS

According to the chronicles of the first Europeans who visited the Isthmus of Panama, they

point out that the first settlers of Panama Viejo were natives of the Cueva language and

occupied the eastern region of the country.

In the 1600s, this historic town had a notorious growth and had about ten thousand

inhabitants, including Spaniards, blacks and indigenous people