Former customs house in Portobelo Panama
by James Brunker
Title
Former customs house in Portobelo Panama
Artist
James Brunker
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
A shot taken after a rainstorm of the former customs house building in Portobelo on the Caribbean coast of Panama. Now a sleepy village, Portobelo was founded in 1597 by Spanish explorer Francisco Velarde y Mercado and was once one of the most important ports in the Spanish Empire in the Americas. Vast amounts of gold and silver from the former Inca Empire in Peru and mines in South America were shipped up the Pacific coast to Panama City and transported across the isthmus to Portobelo before being shipped to Spain. As a result it was repeatedly attacked by pirates (most notably Heny Morgan in 1688), eventually forcing the Spanish to stop using the overland route across Panama and send smaller fleets via Cape Horn instead. The ruins of the Spanish colonial fortifications and colonial buildings, along with nearby Fort San Lorenzo, were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.
Photograph © James Brunker. Reproduction, transmission or publication in any form without prior written permission strictly prohibited.
Uploaded
November 12th, 2022
Statistics
Viewed 170 Times - Last Visitor from Ottawa, ON - Canada on 04/22/2024 at 2:22 PM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Similar Images
Comments (2)
Nisah Cheatham
Congrats! This photo has been featured on the •UNESCO World Heritage Sites• group on FAA/Pixels. --- A unique submission. I don't think this site has been submitted before. ||| Featured images are capped around 30, so you are invited to archive your photo to the "2023 Features!" discussion topic.
James Brunker replied:
Many thanks for featuring this image in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites group Nisah! It's a fascinating little village with a lot of history.
Recently Viewed
