This was the settlement founded Spanish pioneers in 1519. Being on the west coast of Central America, they unfortunately thought themselves safe from attack. So they didn't think to build defensive walls, and thus were vulnerable to attack by pirates, culminating in the burning down of the city 1671 by the privateer Henry Morgan, and leading the surviving citizens to build elsewhere. So all that remains are ruins (which are by the way a UNESCO World Heritage Site). But a land train conveys visitors to a museum on the site, which, with models, artefacts and paintings explains about the site very well

Read more in Tripatini contributor Keith Kellett´s post Panama: The Canal & the Capital.