Those familiar with Portobelo describe it as a living entity full of magic, mystery, and miracles with a magnetic force that attracts visitors. Even the origin of its name is shrouded in mystery. Among many stories, one claims that on Columbus’ fourth and final voyage to the New World, he visited Panama’s Caribbean shores. The magnificence of Portobelo’s vegetation and the depth of its bay seduced him to enter and inadvertently name the village. The sea weary admiral was so smitten by the splendor of Portobelo’s beauty and the protectiveness of its natural harbor that he exclaimed “que porto bello!” Italian for—What a beautiful harbor!

During the colonial period Portobelo was one of the most important ports in the Spanish Empire. The Ferias de Portobelo were an annual event where goods from Europe, Africa, and the Americas were bought, sold or bartered for the gold and silver of South America.

For abducted Africans, Portobelo was simultaneously the end of the horrid Middle Passage and the beginning of bondage in the “New” World. The Congos of Portobelo today are the descendants of the cimarrones—runaway slaves who fiercely fought for their freedom during the Spanish colonial period. After escaping into the hills and rainforests, the cimarrones built fortified villages known as palenques from which they waged wars against their former enslavers. So successful were they in war, that the Spaniards were forced to recognize their freedom. Today, the Congos memorialize their ancestors during carnival in street performances, music, dance, and costumes.

Oral history in Portobelo also tells of a crate containing a black sculptural figure of Jesus Christ magically appearing in the bay during a cholera epidemic and being brought ashore by two fishermen. Shortly after the people began venerating the figure, the epidemic miraculously ended. As a result, for the last three centuries on the 21st of October, the Feast Day of the Cristo Negro de Portobelo—Black Christ of Portobelo, as many as 60,000 devotees make pilgrimages to visit the statue.