Las Bovedas is one of the iconic buildings in Casco Viejo that’s built into the walls of an old dungeon. They were used as jails by the early Spanish Conquistadores. It is said that at high tide, many prisoners drowned here.
Las Bovedas in Casco Viejo were built in the sea wall of the Spanish fort on the tip of the peninsula. It gets its name from the dungeons (Spanish “las bóvedas”), embedded in the wall, which today houses an art gallery and a boutique restaurant. A stroll along the top of the sea wall provides visitors an impressive view of the new Panama City across the bay, specially at night.
As all the guide books worth its salt will tell you, most of the 800 Panama City’s historical buildings are located in the 38 block area referred to interchangeably as “Casco Viejo”, “Casco Antiguo”or “San Felipe”.
Below is a landscape shot of Las Bóvedas in an effort to give you an idea of the dungeons once kept by the Spanish soldiers during the early days of the new Panama City. Here we go.
Beautiful!
Art and cafes in an old dungeon — that’s rather a nice variation on the swords-into-plowshares theme.
Linda,
I’ve been to the restaurant and art gallery and the ambiance is great. You really feel yourself immersed in a totally different epoch.
Cheers,
Omar.-