Portobelo Ruins

The first Spanish structure as one enters Portobelo from the west is Castillo Santiago de la Gloria, on the left side of the road. It’s the last incarnation of a fort that was built, destroyed, rebuilt, and tinkered with for more than 150 years and never ended up defending the town particularly well. These ruins date from 1753.

In the town itself is Castillo San Gerónimo, which dates from the same period. The nearby Customs House, the Real Aduana de Portobelo, was restored in February 1998 by the Spanish government. If you hadn’t seen its state before the restoration, you might have a hard time figuring out what was done to it. Still, the place has been through a lot: Originally built in or around 1630, it was seriously damaged in a 1744 attack, then rebuilt, then damaged again in an 1882 earthquake. Just a couple of walls were left standing before the restoration.

The one-room museum inside the building is nothing special. There’s a bit of the original foundation in the middle of the floor, but “exhibits” consist mainly of cheap reproductions of period pistols (on sale) and some old tools, cannonballs, and mortars. There are also replicas of pre-Colombian Indian tools and weapons mixed in with a few pieces of real pottery shards. There’s a small model of Portobelo’s fortifications just outside the entrance.

For all the incredible treasure that came through this building—and which is still being found in the jungle—the museum has seen fit instead to display a collection of common, modern-day coins that tourists have tossed into the foundation pit. It’s one of those goofy touches one often finds in Panama museums, as is the 1920s typewriter from a colección privada (private collection).

Upstairs from the museum is a large hall with a narrative display containing information on Portobelo, the Camino Real, the Black Christ Festival, and Panamanian folkloric dances. The display is fairly interesting if one speaks Spanish; there is no English translation.

If exploring these ruins and buildings doesn’t satisfy your historical urges, hire a water taxi near Castillo Santiago de la Gloria for $2 per person to take you across the bay to visit what’s left of Castillo San Fernando, which was designed in the 1750s to replace Castillo San Felipe, demolished in 1739 by Edward Vernon, a British admiral. Unfortunately, American builders used rock from the fort in the construction of the canal, further damaging what little that time, war, and pirates had spared. Also, a short, steep hike above town leads to some fortifications with a good view of the bay; if you’re heading east, it’ll be on to the hill to the right just before town. Drivers can park by the side of the road.