NOTA CENTRAL
Actualmente, la santa iglesia ca-
tedral basílica Santa María la Anti-
gua se está restaurando con apoyo
financiero del Instituto Nacional de
Cultura y su Dirección de Patrimo-
nio Histórico, un proyecto a culmi-
nar en diciembre del presente año
que cuenta con el apoyo del Comité
de Amigos de Iglesias del Casco An-
tiguo (CAICA). Hasta el momento,
se han registrado más de cien en-
terramientos catedralicios, algunos
PA N A M Á
objetos de interés, sondeos geofísicos,
prospecciones arqueológicas, resca-
te y restauración de las esculturas de
madera del frontispicio, los retablos,
coro, altares y campanas. Este esfuer-
zo está dirigido a recibir, en febrero
de 2019, al primer papa hispanoame-
ricano, y celebrar el Festival Mundial
Católico de la Juventud.
Cascoantiguo_news
Casco Antiguo News
that Panama enjoyed one day, only the
cathedral has escaped to decrepitude.
Its towers, which serve as lighthouses
to indicate the entrance to the port and
the harbor, are the tallest cathedral in
South America. Thanks to the extinc-
tion of the isthmian volcanoes, these
towers have not moved a line.
The church architecture, ugly and
tasteless, belongs to what is called Je-
suitic style, and has much the same as
the cathedral of Mexico.
Its turrets, like all the churches of
the Isthmus, were covered with sheets
of brilliant mother-of-pearl. When fa-
lling, and being costly to replace them
of the original matter, they have been
replaced by other substances, painted
white.
Each stone has its spirit
Don Antonio Fernandez de Cordo-
ba and Mendoza, knight of the Military
Order of Santiago, ruler and captain
general of the Kingdom of Tierra Fir-
me and president of the Royal Audien-
cia, received a royal cedula ordering
to change the city. Accompanied by the
civil, military and ecclesiastical autho-
rities, he founded the new city on the
slopes of Ancon hill. It delineates and
certifies everything with the clerk of the
king and public notary of the Indies,
Juan de Aranda Grimaldo.
In that act the streets are divided,
the main square is located and the pla-
ce that should occupy the cathedral
church is indicated. The miter, dressed
according to the Roman ritual, blessed
the site and also the cemetery befo-
re the presence of Don Luis Delgado
Osorio and Don Manuel de Quiñones
Osorio, cantor of said cathedral, vicar
general of the Bishopric and general
apostolic commissary subdelegate of
the Holy Cross. The cathedral was one
of the first buildings built, writes Mer-
cedes L. Vidal. Not having large funds,
his bishop, Antonio de Leon, made it
wood. It begins to provide services in
1674.
The request for plans to build a
building with durable material was
managed by Royal Order of September
7, 1675. Leon and Becerra sent them
to Madrid with the accounts presen-
ted by the foreman of the works, Don
Diego Pesquera, and certified by the
notary Ecclesiastical, with expenses
estimated at 200,000 pesos.
By means of Royal Cedula of Sep-
tember 28, 1679, an annual subsidy of
2000 pesos was granted on the real ca-
jas of Lima, during 25 years.
14
Luego de ser abandonada Santa María la Antigua del Darién por orden de Pedro Arias de Ávila, quien en 1519 había fundado Panamá a la
orilla del Mar del Sur, la catedral de la nueva población heredó el traslado de insignias, bulas y reliquias de la Antigua del Darién. Posterior
al incendio ocasionado para librarse del pirata Henry Morganen 1671, la ciudad fue traslada al actual Casco Antiguo de la ciudad de
Panamá en 1673 y con este traslado se dispone el levantamiento de una nueva Catedral.
Lucas Fernandez de Piedrahita suc-
ceeds Leon and Becerra as bishop, and
begins the masonry construction of the
future temple and the walls of the main
chapel up to one meter high. He died in
1688.
Several bishops pass and the work
do not advance. In 1722, Fray Bernardo
Serrada sent a report of the situation to
King Philip V. The stone masonry and
brick masonry factory is in advance, but
the works stagnated for 10 years, were
not paid and in the end the parishioners
donated.
In the report, he requested to renew
the royal cedula of 1678 and pay the
agreed money to finish the work in one of
the oldest cities of the kingdom and door
of the two seas.
Nicolás Rodríguez, Spanish military
engineer, is the author of the plans and the
project. Fac