{{short description|Human settlement in Panama}} {{About|the Spanish colonial town of the early 16th century|other uses|ACLA (disambiguation)}} {{one source |date=April 2024}} '''Acla''' was a Spanish colonial town founded by order of the Governor of Castilla de Oro, Pedrarias Dávila, in 1515. It was located on the central coastline of the modern-day Guna Yala, to the northeast of Panama. The town's name means ''bones 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.<ref name="Andagoya">{{cite web|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Narrative_of_the_Proceedings_of_Pedrarias_Davila/Narrative_of_Pascual_de_Andagoya|title=Narrative of the Proceedings of Pedrarias Davila|first=Pascual de|last=Andagoya|publisher=The Hakluyt Society |accessdate=21 June 2019|via=Wikisource}}</ref>
The town was established principally to be the Caribbean anchor of a trail that was planned to lead to a future town on the Gulf of San Miguel on the Pacific Ocean, which had recently been discovered by Vasco Núñez de Balboa. This town is mostly famous because it was the site of the judgement and decapitation of Núñez de Balboa in 1519 at the hands of Governor Dávila.<ref name="Andagoya" />
Due to the unhealthy nature of the climate and terrain surrounding the town, and especially after the founding of Panama City and Nombre de Dios a few months later, it was slowly abandoned until it was left totally deserted in 1532.<ref name="Andagoya" /> However, a document from the General Archive of Indies (Archivo General de Indias) documenting an [http://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/377541?nm Assault to the town of Acla] dates back to May 31st, 1535.
==References== {{reflist}}
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Category:History of Panama Category:Populated places established in 1515 Category:1515 establishments in the Spanish Empire
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