Richard Fifer

San Lorenzo Fort at the mouth of the Chagres River

Last July, the general director of the Public Enterprises of the Autonomous Region of Extremadura, Spain, Jaime Ruiz Pena, at an outdoors talk about the ancient structures of the San Lorenzo Fort, referred to the historical, cultural, and tourism potential of the site declared Patrimony of Humanity by the Unesco.

Impressed by the well preserved walls that protect the entrance of the Chagres River, Ruiz Pena, agreed upon a gentleman’s pact with the governor of the province of Colon, having the international president of the Castilla del Oro Foundation as witness, Duke of Veragua, Cristobal Colon de Carvajal.  The Castilla del Oro Foundation was created from the vision of entrepreneur Richard Fifer Carles with the purpose of boosting the tourism of the rural areas of the Colon, Cocle, Herrera, Los Santos, and Veraguas provinces.

The stories of pirates and corsairs attacking and taking the San Lorenzo Fort represent a niche for the tourists who could come into this site to see reenactments of those epic battles in which the great powers fought over treasures and routes to conquer and bring wealth to their lands.

Before his flight to Spain the media reported the finding of the cannons of pirate Henry Morgan.

In the article “Morgan’s cannons, a history of transit” from the El Faro Magazine, edited by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), was revealed that in January 08 a team of archeologists and scientists of the Watt Institute for Discovery and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology performed a study to search for submerged cultural resources at the mouth of the Chagres River, in front of the San Lorenzo Fort.

The strong wind and waves did not prevented the team to locate the Lafayette Steam, burned and sunk at the mouth of the river in 1851.

“In their underwater research was found a shipwreck, probably of the Satisfaction ship, related to Henry Morgan’s attack in 1671.  There were also located remains of the attack and destruction of the Castle of San Lorenzo Real de Chagres by the British admiral Edward Vernon in 1740”, stated El Faro.

The researchers documented submerged remains related to the settlements of Chagres (1680-1915), particularly from the California Gold Fever period (1849-1855), as well as materials from the US Army (1911-1999).  “Nothing was removed, everything was documented by the team in situ”, states the report.

Its just like Ruiz Pena imagined it, everything about the San Lorenzo Fort is a historic treasure waiting to be discovered and shown to the world.

“The hill where the castle ruins are found, the sand banks, the beach, the entrance of the river, the Lajas reef, and the channel of the river are places rich in historic cultural materials from human activities of the last 500 years, they take us back to the first years of service of the aquatic line during the colonial era; from the Gold Fever, to the Columbian period, and the North American era”, pointed out this interesting article.

The transit vocation of the Panamanian Isthmus is sealed with the sighting of the Pacific Ocean or South Sea a little over 500 years ago.  The strategic plan of Charles I to build terminal cities at the coast of both oceans, joined by a communication channel, is the immediate background of the trans-isthmic route.

It established the strategic triangle formed by the cities of Panama, Chagres, and Nombre de Dios, and later Portobelo, joined by the development and consolidation of the routes of galleons between Cartagena (Colombia), Panama, Callao (Peru) and Arica (Chile).

The construction and fortification of the mouth of the river was ordered by Philippe II and concreted between 1579 and 1597 after the attack of the English pirate Francis Drake.  The fort was called and armed San Lorenzo Real de Chagre in 1626.  San Lorenzo Real de Chagre stands as the most important military fort, becoming a landmark in military engineering without precedent in the history of Colonial America.

The route Portobelo, Chagres, Panama makes the ports connections with South America, Mexico, and the Spanish possessions of the Pacific in the Philippines.  It marked the immediate antecessor of the route exploited by the Panama Canal today for the benefit of the international marine commerce.

The Chagres route, the San Lorenzo Real de Chagre Castle, Venta de Cruces, the Canal with its locks and the future expansion, have been, and will always be part of the evolution and development of the route administered by the Panamanians for the benefit of the World.

Related posts:

1. San Lorenzo surrounded by pirate mystique and privateers
2. Fundacion Castilla del Oro: Unique Tourism Away From the Masses
3. Richard Fifer – Spain and Panama, ever closer