{"id":55134,"date":"2022-12-20T18:56:28","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T17:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/?p=55134"},"modified":"2022-12-22T20:01:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T19:01:55","slug":"ambitious-project-probes-the-bowels-of-panamas-fort-san-lorenzo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/ambitious-project-probes-the-bowels-of-panamas-fort-san-lorenzo\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambitious project probes the bowels of Panama\u2019s Fort San Lorenzo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Panama City, Dec 20 (EFE).- Panamanian researchers are looking for the ruins of the bastions of one of the four construction phases of Fort San Lorenzo, a World Heritage Site since 1980 that played a key role in the Spanish crown\u2019s defensive system for transatlantic trade.<\/h4>\n

This is just one of the goals of a “multidisciplinary and inter-institutional” project looking into the origins of the fortress, an example of military architecture from the 17th and 18th centuries, and the town of Chagres that existed in its vicinity, the project\u2019s main researcher, Dr. Tom\u00e1s Mendiz\u00e1bal, told EFE.<\/h4>\n

“It is a large, ambitious project” that involves “excavation in the moat, prospecting, oral memory, geophysics,” Mendiz\u00e1bal said, while the Panamanian expert Alexis Mojica carried out sweeps of the ground with an electrical conductivity scanner in an area of the fortress, located in the Caribbean province of Col\u00f3n.<\/h4>\n

The San Lorenzo and Portobelo forts make up the Fortifications on the Caribbean Side of Panama, which have been on UNESCO\u2019s World Heritage in Danger list since 2012. The Culture Ministry is executing a program with funds from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to achieve the desired state of conservation.<\/h4>\n

Panama is working on the nomination as a Unesco World Heritage site for The Colonial Transisthmian Route of Panam\u00e1, which includes the Archaeological Site of Panama Viejo and the Historic District of Panama (World Heritage since 1997), the Fortifications of the Caribbean Coast of Panama, and the colonial roads that unite them: the Camino de Cruces and the Camino Real.<\/h4>\n

“As part of the nomination dossier” of the Route, “the results of this project” of San Lorenzo will be presented, with which Panama “demonstrates to Unesco that it is managing the site, that it is taking advantage of it for (… .) research” to produce “new knowledge and disseminate it,” said the archaeologist.<\/h4>\n

And all this is done with a “90 percent Panamanian team” and with funding from the National Strategic Plan for Science, Technology, and Innovation, added Mendiz\u00e1bal, who is a staff researcher at the Center for Historical, Anthropological and Cultural Research AIP (CIHAC).<\/h4>\n

The Culture Ministry, the Canal Museum, Colombia\u2019s University of the North, the University of Panama, the Technological University of Panama, the Smithsonian Institute for Tropical Research, and the Board of Portabelo and San Lorenzo collaborate with this project, called “The Origins of the Castle of San Lorenzo and the Town of Chagres in the Panamanian Caribbean”.<\/h4>\n

A FORT RAZED BY ENEMIES AND REBUILT FOUR TIMES<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The fortification, located on a cliff, now shows reinforcement and scaffolding as part of the conservation work. Due to its location, San Lorenzo was a strategic military asset, since following the nearby Chagres River and the Camino de Cruces one reached Panama City and the Pacific coast.<\/h4>\n

“This is the fourth version of the San Lorenzo castles that were built over time. The first was on the tip of the cliff but below, in the sea, which completely washed it away in the 17th century,”\u00a0 explained Mendiz\u00e1bal.<\/h4>\n

The second fortress “was made of wood and earth and was the one that was destroyed” by the privateer pirate Henry Morgan (1635-1688) “in 1671 when he attacked San Lorenzo on his way to Panama (which he plundered). Nothing remains of that one,” noted the expert.<\/h4>\n
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