When Old Panama, just five miles from Panama City’s downtown area, was the first Spanish burg ever built on the Pacific coast and bragged about being the largest hub of all major commercial routes in the Western Hemisphere –all the gold and the silver dug out by Spaniards used to be shipped to those lands- a monumental church was flaunting its altar made of solid gold of the Americas.

Driven by greediness, English pirate Henry Morgan led an attack against the city in 1671 and eventually ransacked the town and set it on fire. The church priests, forewarned about the coming catastrophe, painted the altar in black to protect it from the assailants. This was the only historic monument that survived pirate Morgan’s attack against Old Panama City.

Later on, as it was moved to the old core of town, the altar was taken to today’s San Jose Church. Thousands of tourists flock there every year to feast eyes on this magnificent masterpiece.

The fact is indeed shrouded by legends and the stories of artists who don’t seem to come to terms. Many say, for instance, that the original altar was usurped by the Spaniards and that what tourists gaze at today is nothing but a marvelously remodeled altar made of gold nuggets.

Regardless of these mixed versions, the piece is still standing tall as a token of the many wonders the American world treasures.