Casco Viejo and Panama Viejo, Panama City, Panama City, Panama

The World Heritage site in Panama City, inscribed for being the oldest continuously occupied European settlement on the Pacific coast of the Americas, comprises two components. Both somewhat confusingly have the moniker “old” in their names. Casco Viejo (or Casco Antiguo) is the historic heart of the city but is actually “the new town” compared to the archaeological site of Panama Viejo. The latter is the original settlement of the 16th-17th centuries. I managed to visit both parts of the site on our recent stay in town.

The prevailing opinion among the WH-chasing community is that Casco Viejo is not overly special. Not without occasional fine details but lacking a critical mass of outstanding features, or rather, lacking in the department of “Outstanding Universal Value”, which provides justification for being added to the WH list in the first place.

Having been prejudiced by that opinion but also being a visual person, I found Casco Viejo exceeding my expectations in terms of how much I ended up liking it. Yes, killer features are in short supply. Some streets are clogged with cars. Plenty of buildings are in a less-than-perfect state. And yet, the overall ensemble of the colonial architectural styles is rather pleasing to the eye, in no small part due to the various balconies that adorn upper floors. Casco Viejo is sometimes rightly called “the city of a thousand balconies”. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).