Portobelo, Panama

Portobelo
Corregimiento and city
Portobelo ruins and bay
Portobelo
Coordinates: 9°33′00″N 79°39′00″W / 9.55000°N 79.65000°W / 9.55000; -79.65000Coordinates: 9°33′00″N 79°39′00″W / 9.55000°N 79.65000°W / 9.55000; -79.65000
Country	Panama
Province	Colón
District	Portobelo
Founded	1597
Founded by	Francisco Velarde y Mercado
Area
• Land	244.7 km2 (94.5 sq mi)
Population (2010)
• Total	4,559
• Density	18.6/km2 (48/sq mi)
	Population density calculated based on land area.
Time zone	EST (UTC−5)

Portobelo is a port city and corregimiento in Portobelo District, Colón Province, Panama with a population of 4,559 as of 2010. It is the seat of Portobelo District. It was established during the Spanish colonial period. Located on the northern part of the Isthmus of Panama, it has a deep natural harbor and was used as a center for silver exporting before the mid-eighteenth century and destruction in the War of Jenkins' Ear.

It slowly rebuilt and the city's economy revived briefly in the late nineteenth century during construction of the Panama Canal. But, today Portobelo is a sleepy city with a population of fewer than 5,000. In 1980 the ruins of the Spanish colonial fortifications, along with nearby Fort San Lorenzo, were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, named Fortifications on the Caribbean Side of Panama: Portobelo-San Lorenzo.

Portobelo was founded in 1597 by Spanish explorer Francisco Velarde y Mercado and quickly replaced Nombre de Dios as a Caribbean port for Peruvian silver. Legend has it that Christopher Columbus originally named the port "Puerto Bello", meaning "Beautiful Port", in 1502. After Francis Drake died of dysentery in 1596 at sea, he was said to be buried in a lead coffin near Portobelo Bay. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, it was an important silver-exporting port in New Granada on the Spanish Main and one of the ports on the route of the Spanish treasure fleets. The Spanish built defensive fortifications.