Fortifications on the Caribbean Side of Panama: Portobelo-San Lorenzo

Colón Province · Panama

Fortifications on the Caribbean Side of Panama: Portobelo-San Lorenzo, Panama
Photo: gailf548 from New York State, USA, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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December–April
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Spain's treasure fleets needed guarding, and Panama's Caribbean coast shows how it was done. The forts of Portobelo and San Lorenzo — superb military architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries — anchored the Crown's defence of transatlantic trade, with San Lorenzo commanding the Chagres river mouth and Portobelo's batteries ringing its bay. UNESCO inscribed the fortifications in 1980; jungle and sea now frame the cannon.

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