Unraveling Panama’s history
A team of archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and engineers are unraveling the lost stories of the Caribbean coast, where the engineer Juan Bautista Antonelli recommended in 1588 to build a fortress to defend the entrance of the Chagres River and thus protect the commercial route created by the Spanish Crown.
The excavations carried out so far are bringing to light the solid structures that were part of the third version of the Castillo San Lorenzo el Real de Chagres, as well as remains of the 18th-century church of the town of Chagres that arose next to the military fortress.
The project led by Tomás Mendizábal, archaeologist and researcher at the Center for Historical, Anthropological and Cultural Research of Panama affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, is financed by the National Secretariat for Science, Technology, and Innovation (Senacyt), and it has the support of important academic and research institutions in the country
