The Nata site had a large indigenous population before\nthe foundation of the Hispanic site. Gonzalo de Badajoz describes it in 1515,\nas a settlement where there were so many huts that the spanish fear of watching\nso much population. Carlos Fitzgerald, a Panamanian archaeologist, says that to\nunderstand the history of Nata, it is necessary to remember that the first\ninhabitants of the Isthmus of Panama arrived as migrants 14,000 years ago. The evolution\nof human occupation occurred continuously until the arrival of the spanish.\nFrom the first millennium A.C. there were agricultural villages, where ceramics\nwere used and gold was crafted in a tradition that stands out for its\nsophisticated skill, culture material found in lavish burials sites such as El\nCa\u00f1o and Sitio Conte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Second City Founded in the Pacific<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 20, 1522, Pedrarias Davila founded Nata to link\nthe advance towards Central America, serve as a granary for the terminal cities\nof the Isthmus and spearhead the conquest of Veraguas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Researchers of the urban fact, identify Panama la\nVieja (1519) and Nata\n(1522), as the two main settlements founded by Pedrarias on the Isthmus. Before\ncities such as Bogota and Lima, Nata tried grid layouts with large blocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Minor Basilica of Nata<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Officially declared as the Parochial Church of Nata,\nits construction began in 1522 and more than one hundred years were invested\nfor its completion. Completed in the last third of the 17th century and the end\nof the 18th, it is considered the greatest cultural-religious architectural structure\non Panamanian land by\nthe Spanish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The church is the monumental Hispanic legacy of Nata,\nit was consecrated by the Santiago Apostle and has the merit of being the\noldest church in America, still in use. The church building was declared a\nNational Historic Landmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Basilica had four distinguished bells with the\nnames Santisimo Sacramento and Purisima Concepcion, San Joseph and Saint Rosa\nand Santiago el Mayor, cast in 1690. The fourth was a gift from the Panamanian\nbishop, Monsignor Manuel Joaquin Gonzalez, cast in 1804.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Proven Legend of a Secret Tunnel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A legend that surrounds the temple says that the\ntunnel has five different exits, the first and main one at the entrance and\nexit of the minor sacristy; the second is at the entrance and exit of the bell tower;\nthe third in the San Juan de Dios chapel, although some claim that the site\nindicated was a boneyard; the fourth would be in the disappeared Soledad\nchurch, and the last would be in Cerro San Cristobal. Thanks to Fundacion Nata de\nlos Caballeros Siglo XXI, has been able to verify its existence and a way to\nrecover its operation is being sought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tunnel is believed to have been built before the\nchurch, around the middle of the 18th century, which suggests that the\nindigenous people had already been colonized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fall of the Town and its Resurgence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n After nine years, Nata de los Caballeros was destroyed\nby the indigenous people in 1531. It was later rebuilt at the initiative of the\nBishop of Panama in 1532. The native population declined rapidly and most of\nthem migrated to Azuero and founded La Villa de Los Santos, while others\ndecided to go and conquest the Veraguas region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nata retained the hierarchy of a city throughout the\ncolonial period but its economic base was always weak and over time, it would be\nreplaced by Penonome as the main urban center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Panama was the first territory on mainland to host the first colonial cities in the American continent. Portobelo, Nombre de Dios, Belen, Santa Mar\u00eda La Antigua, Panama and Nata are examples of these cities founded on the American continent. Nata 14,000 years ago The Nata site had a large indigenous population before the foundation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4219"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4219"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4267,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4219\/revisions\/4267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Compress_20220426_205520_0448.jpg\")
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