Panama is often introduced to travellers through the Panama Canal, tropical beaches, skyscrapers and rainforests. But scattered around the country are monuments and historic structures that tell a much deeper story. Some commemorate independence, some celebrate the Canal, some remember explorers and national heroes, and others are the remains of entire cities that disappeared centuries ago.
What makes Panama particularly fascinating is that its monuments reflect the country's unusual position in world history. Indigenous cultures, Spanish colonization, pirates, independence movements, the construction of the Panama Canal and the country's modern international importance have all left physical marks on the landscape.
Here are some of the monuments and monumental places that are particularly worth knowing about.
Panamá Viejo: The Ruins of the First Panama City
Perhaps no monument in Panama tells a more dramatic story than Panamá Viejo.
This was the site where Panama City was founded in 1519, making it the first European settlement on the Pacific coast of the Americas. It became an enormously important commercial centre because goods travelling between the Atlantic and Pacific worlds passed through the isthmus.
Then came the pirates.
In 1671, the city was attacked by Henry Morgan and left in ruins. Rather than rebuild on the same site, the city was moved to what is now Casco Antiguo two years later. The abandoned ruins remained largely untouched for centuries, which is one reason so much of the old city's architecture and archaeological material survives today.
The most famous structure is the tower of the old cathedral.
Standing above the surrounding ruins, the tower has become one of Panama's great national symbols. It is particularly striking because modern Panama City rises behind it in the distance, creating an extraordinary photograph: sixteenth and seventeenth century ruins in the foreground and a forest of modern skyscrapers behind them.
Panamá Viejo is part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing for the archaeological site and historic district of Panama City.
It is difficult to find a better illustration of Panama's history in a single photograph.
The Monument to Vasco Núñez de Balboa
Along the waterfront of Panama City stands one of the country's most recognizable statues: the Monument to Vasco Núñez de Balboa.
Balboa is remembered for reaching the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic side of the isthmus in 1513, which Europeans at the time called the "Mar del Sur," or South Sea.
The monument itself is much younger. It was created by Spanish sculptors Mariano Benlliure and Miguel Blay and was inaugurated in Panama City in 1924.
The bronze Balboa stands above a globe, holding a sword and a Spanish flag. The monument's symbolism reflects the way Balboa was commemorated in Panama during the early twentieth century.
Today, however, the figure is also part of a more complicated historical conversation. Balboa was a Spanish conquistador operating during the violent period of European conquest, and his legacy cannot be separated from the broader history of colonization and its devastating consequences for Indigenous peoples.
That complexity actually makes the monument more interesting for visitors. It isn't merely a statue of an explorer. It represents one chapter in a much larger and often difficult history.
The Monument to the Martyrs of January 9
One of the most emotionally significant monuments in Panama is the Monument to the Martyrs of January 9, commemorating the events of January 9, 1964.
The date is deeply embedded in Panamanian national history. Demonstrations and clashes surrounding the flying of the Panamanian flag in the Canal Zone resulted in deaths and injuries and became an important turning point in Panama's relationship with the United States.
The monument serves as a reminder that the Canal was not simply an engineering project. It was also at the centre of questions about sovereignty, territory and national identity.
For visitors who know Panama mainly as the country with the famous canal, monuments connected to January 9 provide another perspective: the Canal was also a political and emotional issue for generations of Panamanians.
The Goethals Monument
Few people involved in the construction of the Panama Canal are as closely associated with the engineering project as George Washington Goethals.
Goethals served as chief engineer during the construction of the Canal and became one of the best-known figures associated with the project.
His monument in Panama City is located near the Panama Canal Administration Building and is particularly interesting because it doesn't simply commemorate a person. Its imagery is connected to the enormous engineering achievement surrounding it. The monument has become one of the historic landmarks associated with the Canal's construction.
Standing there today, surrounded by modern Panama City, it can be difficult to imagine the enormous undertaking that the Canal represented more than a century ago.
The Bridge of the Americas
Technically, the Bridge of the Americas is a bridge rather than a traditional monument.
But in Panama, it has become something much bigger than a piece of transportation infrastructure.
Opened in 1962, the bridge crosses the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal and connects the two sides of the country. It became an important physical link between North and South America and a major landmark of Panama City.
Its location is particularly dramatic.
From the Amador area, you can look toward the bridge while ships move through the Canal below. The combination of enormous vessels, tropical water, the city skyline and the bridge itself makes this one of the great visual scenes in Panama City.
It is also a reminder that Panama's geography is not merely beautiful.
It is strategically important.
For centuries, people have looked at this narrow strip of land between two oceans and realized that controlling or crossing it could change world trade.
Las Bóvedas
Down in Casco Antiguo, Las Bóvedas forms part of the old defensive structures along the waterfront.
The name means "the vaults," referring to the vaulted structures incorporated into the old defensive system.
Today, the area is one of the most atmospheric places to walk in Casco Antiguo. The old walls overlook the sea, while restaurants, plazas and historic buildings surround them.
But the location makes more sense when you remember that the old city was designed with defense in mind. After the destruction of Panamá Viejo, the new city was established on a more defensible peninsula.
Today people stroll along the walls taking photographs.
Centuries ago, the purpose was considerably less relaxing.
Plaza de Francia and the French Connection
At the southwestern end of Casco Antiguo is Plaza de Francia, one of Panama City's most recognizable monumental spaces.
The plaza commemorates the French involvement in the history of the Panama Canal, particularly the nineteenth century French attempt to construct an interoceanic canal.
The centrepiece is the large monument dedicated to French figures associated with the Canal project, surrounded by statues and inscriptions.
The French attempt ultimately failed, but it laid important groundwork for the later American project.
Walking around Plaza de Francia therefore gives visitors an opportunity to remember something that is sometimes forgotten: the Panama Canal was not created overnight by the United States.
The French had already attempted the enormous project decades earlier.
The Monument to the Goethals and Canal Engineers
Panama's monuments also commemorate the enormous multinational workforce behind the Canal.
The Canal wasn't built by one famous engineer working alone. Thousands upon thousands of workers participated in the project under extraordinarily difficult conditions.
Disease, tropical heat, enormous excavations and engineering problems made the construction a staggering undertaking.
This is one reason Canal related monuments are worth seeking out. They help move the story away from the familiar image of locks and ships and toward the people who actually built the infrastructure.
The Einstein Head
Not every famous monument in Panama commemorates a politician, explorer or engineer.
In Panama City's Via Argentina area you'll find the unusual Einstein Head, a large sculpture depicting the head of Albert Einstein.
The monument was donated by Panama's Jewish community and has become one of the neighbourhood's more unusual landmarks.
It is a perfect example of the eclectic character of Panama City.
You can go from colonial architecture to skyscrapers to a massive Einstein head without travelling particularly far.
The Monument to Simón Bolívar
Simón Bolívar is another major historical figure represented in Panama City.
His connection to Panama is particularly interesting because the city hosted the Congress of Panama in 1826, an ambitious attempt to bring together the newly independent nations of Latin America.
The monument in Plaza Bolívar in Casco Antiguo commemorates Bolívar as a political thinker and independence leader.
The plaza itself is one of the most atmospheric spaces in the historic district, surrounded by beautiful colonial and republican architecture.
It is a place where you can sit beneath the trees, look at the monument and realize that Panama was once being imagined as a potential meeting place for an entirely new political order in the Americas.
The Monumental Buildings of Casco Antiguo
Sometimes the most important monuments aren't statues at all.
Casco Antiguo contains churches, plazas, convents, defensive walls and historic buildings that together form one enormous monumental district.
The Municipality of Panama describes the historic district as containing four principal plazas and seven churches considered historic monuments.
Among the most famous buildings are the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Church of San José, the Church of La Merced and the remains of the old convent complexes.
The remarkable thing is the variety.
You can walk around one corner and see an elegant colonial church. Turn another corner and discover a ruined wall. Walk farther and suddenly find yourself looking at modern restaurants and boutique hotels.
Casco Antiguo isn't a museum frozen in time.
It is a living neighbourhood built around layers of history.
The Panama Canal Itself
And then there is the obvious one.
The Panama Canal isn't technically a monument in the traditional sense, but it is arguably Panama's greatest monumental achievement.
The locks, channels, control structures and enormous artificial landscape created for the Canal are among the most impressive pieces of engineering ever constructed.
At the Miraflores Locks, visitors can watch ships being raised and lowered while learning how the system operates.
But there is an even more fascinating way to think about the Canal.
Before the Canal existed, ships travelling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans had to travel around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America.
Panama effectively turned the geography of the world into a shortcut.
That is why the Canal transformed global shipping and made Panama one of the most strategically important places on Earth.
Panama's Monuments Tell a Bigger Story
The best thing about visiting Panama's monuments is that they aren't isolated pieces of history.
They connect.
Start at Panamá Viejo and you are looking at the beginnings of Spanish Panama.
Go to Casco Antiguo and you see the city rebuilt after the pirate attack.
Visit Plaza de Francia and you encounter the French Canal attempt.
See the Balboa monument and you are reminded of European exploration and conquest.
Visit the Canal and you see the transformation of Panama into one of the world's most important transportation corridors.
Then look across the skyline at the modern towers of Panama City.
Suddenly you can see the whole story.
Panama has gone from Indigenous cultures and Spanish colonial trade, through pirates and independence, to one of the most globally connected countries in the Americas.
That is what makes its monuments so interesting.
They aren't simply things to photograph.
They are clues.
And if you follow enough of those clues, you begin to understand why this remarkably narrow piece of land between two oceans has played such an enormous role in world history.