Portobelo Fort, Panama

Panama-2, originally uploaded by Abhishek's Received Postcards.

Portobelo is a port city in Colón Province, Panama. It is located on the northern part of the Isthmus of Panama.
Portobelo was founded in 1597. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries it was an important silver-exporting port in New Granada on the Spanish Main and one of the ports on the route of the Spanish treasure fleets. Today, Portobelo is a sleepy city with a population of fewer than 5,000. It has a deep natural harbor. In 1980 the ruins of the fortification, along with nearby Fort San Lorenzo, were declared a World Heritage Site.
According to www.worldheritagesite.org, "The Panamanian forts of Portobelo and San Lorenzo on the Caribbean coast form part of the defence system built by the Spanish Crown to protect transatlantic trade. They are magnificent examples of 17th- and 18th-century military architecture."