Santa María la Antigua del Darién—turned into Dariena in the Latin of
De Orbo Novo—was a
Spanish colonial town founded in 1510 by
Vasco Núñez de Balboa, located in present-day
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
approximately south of
Acandí, within the municipality of
Unguía in the
Chocó Department. It was the first city founded by
conquistador
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...
s in mainland America. After
Pascual de Andagoya, a Spanish-Basque conquistador under the direction of Panama governor
Pedrarias Dávila, founded
Panama City
Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...
in 1519, Santa María la Antigua del Darién was abandoned and in 1524 was attacked and burned by the indigenous people.
In 2012, the lost site of the town was rediscovered, and in 2019 the government of Colombia opened the Parque Arqueológico e Histórico de Santa María de Belén la Antigua del Darién.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Maria La Antigua Del Darien
Populated places established in 1510
1519 disestablishments in Colombia