Acla was a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

colonial town founded by order of the Governor of

Castilla de Oro Castilla de Oro or del Oro () was the name given by the Spaniards, Spanish settlers at the beginning of the 16th century to the Central American territories from the Gulf of Urabá, near today's Colombian-Panamanian Colombia–Panama border, bord ...

, Pedrarias Dávila, in 1515. It was located on the central coastline of the modern-day

Guna Yala Guna Yala, also known as Kuna Yala or by its former name San Blas, is a ''Comarca#Panama, comarca indígena'' (indigenous province) in northeast Panama. Guna Yala is home to the indigenous people known as the Guna people, Gunas. Its capital ...

, to the northeast of

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

. The town's name means ''

bone A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...

s of men'' in the indigenous language. The name comes from the large number of bones strewn about the nearby plains, which supposedly came from the conflicts between two indigenous brothers who fought to become chiefs of the region. The town was established principally to be the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

anchor of a trail that was planned to lead to a future town on the Gulf of San Miguel on the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, which had recently been discovered by

Vasco Núñez de Balboa Vasco Núñez de Balboa (; c. 1475around January 12–21, 1519) was a Spanish people, Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for crossing the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to ...

. This town is mostly famous because it was the site of the judgement and

decapitation Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common c ...

of Núñez de Balboa in 1519 at the hands of Governor Dávila. Due to the unhealthy nature of the climate and terrain surrounding the town, and especially after the founding of

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 ...

and Nombre de Dios a few months later, it was slowly abandoned until it was left totally deserted in 1532. However, a document from the General Archive of Indies (Archivo General de Indias) documenting a
Assault to the town of Acla
dates back to May 31st, 1535.

References

History of Panama Populated places established in 1515 1515 establishments in the Spanish Empire {{GunaYala-geo-stub