Santa María la Antigua del Darién was a Spanish colonial town founded in 1510 by Vasco Núñez de Balboa, located in present-day Colombia approximately 40 miles south of Acandí.Was the first city founded by spanish in mainland America. After Pascual de Andagoya, a Spanish-Basque conquistador under the direction of Panama governor Pedrarias Dávila, founded Panama City in 1519, Santa María la Antigua del Darién was abandoned and in 1524 was attacked and burned by the indigenous people.
Darién is a wild region in the extreme east of the country, bordering Colombia on the east, Kuna Yala (San Blas) on the north, the Pacific Ocean on the south, and the Province of Panama in the northwest. It was also the site of the Darién scheme, a colonization project.