PLAZA DE FRANCIA

The former colonial Place d'Armes was redeveloped just over a century ago, in 1922, to pay tribute to the unsuccessful attempt by the French to break through the isthmus. At the far end of the square, facing the sea, stands an obelisk, at the top of which a proud Gallic rooster looks out over the canal and towards France! Its base is surrounded by busts of figures who played a major role in "el esfuerzo francés " ("the French effort", as Panamanians refer to the French canal project): Ferdinand de Lesseps and engineers Armand Reclus, Lucien Napoléon Bonaparte-Wyse, Léon Boyer and Panamanian Pedro Sosa (when Panama still belonged to Colombia). Behind them, in a semi-circular gallery with arcades, is the story of the canal told by Octavio Méndez Pereira. A plaque also pays tribute to Cuban physician Carlos Juan Finlay, who identified the mosquito responsible for transmitting yellow fever and advocated controlling the insect's population as an effective way of combating the disease. Just before the staircase is the spot where Victoriano Lorenzo, the indigenous hero of the Thousand Days War, was shot in 1903. Opposite the square is the French Embassy, housed in an attractive early ^20th-century house. Next door, the ^18th-century Las Bóvedas ("the vaults") were once used as prison cells. Sculptures depict old trades, one of them María Ossa de Amador, who made the first Panamanian flag.