Chiru

Chiru lies in the Parita country of Pacific Panama, a lowland of wooded hills, fishing grounds and small rivers. Before the Spanish conquest, Parita was the capital of its own Indigenous kingdom, whose chiefs ruled the surrounding valleys. Spanish colonists founded a town there in 1556, creating a new administrative and religious centre beside the old one. The older kingdom gave the district its name and political memory, while the colonial town grew slowly as a modest rural centre.

The later city of Penonomé lies here.