tourism

More Casco tours offered

UNESCO declared the Casco Antiguo a World Heritage Site in 2003. in 2005, the city offered only one tour of the area.

Today the Oficina del Casco Antiguo offers three tours featuring daily life in the area, the history of the nation, and religious sites.

LA PRENSA

On the map:The Casco Antiguo, also known as the Casco Viejo, is one of the most visited sites in Panama, attracting both residents and tourists. 1043762

The Oficina del Casco Antiguo used to offer only one tour of the city's historic district, which the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared a World Heritage site in 2003. Now if offers three, each one featuring a different aspect of the neighborhood dating back to the sixteenth century.

The first tour, which the Oficina began promoting in 2005, was intended to educate Panamanians about their city's history and rich cultural inheritance, said Ariel Espino, director of the Oficina. Now the organization offers tours for Panamanians and tourists alike every Friday and Saturday and on the first Sunday of each month, when the Casco hosts a lively flea market in its main plaza.

The tours explore daily life in the district, the history of the nation, and religious sites. The daily life tour includes visits to some of the area's most illustrious houses, theaters, the old Conservatorio Nacional, and the headquarters of the first private bank established in Panama after its separation from Colombia, the First National City Bank.

The daily life tour also focuses on the Casco's French architectural legacy, with a visit to the Museo del Canal, originally built in 1875 as the Gran Hotel and later converted to the headquarters of the Compañía Universal del Canal Interoceánico. The neocolonial hotel Colombia, the last grand hotel built in the Casco Antiguo, in 1937, is also featured on the tour.

Visitors who opt for the history of the nation tour will be able to visit the Palacio Municipal; the site where Panama proclaimed its independence from Spain and Colombia; the Palacio de la Presidencia, constructed as a residence in 1673 after the destruction of the old city of Panama; and the Plaza de Francia, which commemorates the French effort to build the Panama Canal.

According to Espino, the religious sites tour is the most popular and takes tourists to the Catedral de Panamá, one of the oldest cathedrals in Central America, and the Iglesia de La Merced, one of the oldest buildings in the district.

Last year, more than 2,000 people took the Oficina's tours, most of them grade school and university students. Espino says more tours are in the works as more buildings are being restored.