App to visit "500 sites" of the Panamanian Pacific's oldest city is launched

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App to visit "500 sites" of the Panamanian Pacific's oldest city is launched

Tue, 10/09/2018 - 15:32

Visiting some 500 sites in the city of Panama is possible thanks to 'Panama 500', an 'app' available for IOS and Android and driven by entrepreneurs, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the foundation of the first Hispanic city founded on the American Pacific coast, an official source reported today.

The initiative that is part of the activities prior to the anniversary to be held on August 15, 2019, is intended to enable people to "play, compete and learn," the 500-year Commission said in a statement. It has the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The smartphone app is focused on different targets, such as players who enjoy competing, teachers who arrange to make excursions with their students, as well as for tourists who can visit the most prominent sites of the capital.

Panama 500 has 10 categories: architecture, knowledge, art and culture, history, sports, monuments, people, neighborhoods, nature and gastronomy. In each phase there are 50 places to know, which complete the 500 sites that are part of the heritage.

The Commission reported that during the first 24 hours of launching the app, a player toured seven nearby sites: the Seafood Market, the Cinta Costera, the statue of Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the National Archives, the Gladys Vidal Theater in El Hatillo, the Embassy of Spain and Santo Tomás Hospital in a period of 45 minutes.

Its creators said that the project has the potential to generate traffic to specific places, so they are making alliances with organizations such as the City of Knowledge, the Panama Metro, the Biomuseo, among others.

On August 15, 1519 the Spanish Pedro Arias Dávila founded the city of Panama, which became the first European settlement on the Pacific coast of the continent and which served as the axis of one of the most important trade routes of the time and point of departure of the expeditions that allowed the colonization of Central and South America.

During the seventeenth century about 10,000 inhabitants lived in the city, but in 1671 the famous English pirate Henry Morgan destroyed the city and the municipal authorities of the moment decided to move the Panamanian capital to a place 10 miles further southwest. Today there are three different cities in the capital: the Colombian, the colonial and the modern cities.

The ruins of that abandoned and destroyed city, now known as the Monumental Complex of Old Panama, are one of the most attractive tourist spots in the country.

 

https://www.panamatoday.com/panama/app-visit-500-sites-panamanian-pacifics-oldest-city-launched-8047