Veraguas () is a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

, located in the centre-west of the country. The capital is the city of

Santiago de Veraguas Santiago de Veraguas () is the capital of the province of Veraguas, in the Republic of Panama, and the district or municipality of the same name. Located in the countryside next to the Pan American Highway. Bounded on the north by San Francisco Di ...

. It is the only Panamanian province to border both the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

oceans. It covers an area of 10,587.6 km² and in 2019 it had an estimated population of 247,644.

History

Veraguas was originally inhabited by the

Veraguas culture The Veraguas culture, also known as the Chiriqui culture, was a pre-Columbian Panamian culture. It is noted for the quality of its goldwork. Art The Veraguas culture cast zoomorphic pendants out of gold and tumbaga, using the lost wax method. Wh ...

. Veraguas was explored by

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

on his fourth voyage. He tried to establish the first colony in the new Spanish mainland but failed due to resistance from Indigenous peoples.

Diego de Nicuesa Diego de Nicuesa (; died 1511) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer. Background Diego arrived Santo Domingo in April 1502, with Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres' flotilla. In 1506, Nicuesa was given the job of governing Costa Rica, but ran agrou ...

also tried to establish a colony and failed, which made him create a colony to fight against the Indigenous population, which he named Nombre de Dios. Its capital, Santiago de Veraguas, was founded about 1636. It is said that its name comes from the indigenous word "Veracua" or "Viragua", though other theories abound. It is the only province in Panama with coastlines on both the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

and the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. The majority of people live on the Pacific side; the Caribbean coast is mostly uninhabited.

Tourism

Veraguas has many groups of inhabitants, mainly of Spanish/Indigenous origin named ''campesinos''. This land offers tourists and visitors close contact with nature. Forests, mountains, coasts, and islands where there are more than 200 varieties of

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

s; more than 400 species of birds, in addition to mammals, reptiles, and insects. Veraguas has various national parks. The

Coiba Coiba is the largest island in Central America, with an area of , off the Pacific coast of the Panamanian province of Chiriquí. It is part of the Tolé District of that province. History Coiba separated from continental Panama about 12,000 to ...

National Park, (with the largest

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

of the Pacific Coast of America), Cerro Hoya National Park (covers the southwest part of the Azuero Peninsula and the sea that surrounds it), Santa Fe National Park (a forest in the northern region), La Yeguada Forest reserve (with a great artificial lake for the production of electricity) and El Montuoso Forest reserve. Beaches such as Playa Santa Catalina, Playa Mariato, Malena, and Torio offer great places for recreation,

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

, and

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

. Other famous touristic areas is the ''Iglesia de San Francisco de la Montaña''. This church has a

Baroque architecture Baroque architecture is a highly decorative and theatrical style which appeared in Italy in the early 17th century and gradually spread across Europe. It was originally introduced by the Catholic Church, particularly by the Jesuits, as a means t ...

and dates back to 1727. It was declared a National Historical Monument on January 27, 1937.

Administrative divisions

Veraguas Province is divided into 12 ''distritos'' (districts) and subdivided into 104 '' corregimientos''.

References

External links

Official website of Santiago de Veraguas
{{Coord, 8, N, 81, W, region:PA_type:adm1st_dim:200000, display=t Provinces of Panama

History

Tourism

Administrative divisions

See also

References

External links