David

David was founded in 1602 by Juan López de Sequeira, governor of Veraguas, in the area now known as Barrio Bolívar, with Francisco de Gama credited with building the settlement. Both were Portuguese converts from Judaism, and the choice of the biblical King David as the town's namesake was highly unusual at a time when Spanish towns were named after saints. The colonial authorities long refused to recognise the place, possibly because of its founders' background, and only in 1736 did it gain official status as La Ermita San José de David. It lay on the Camino Real, the long trail linking Central America with Panama City, and its first wealth was cattle: by 1609 thousands of head were grazing around it.

In the 19th century David had only a handful of streets — among them the Calle Real and the Calle del Peligro — but it became the seat of the new province of Chiriquí and was named a city in 1860. Fighting reached it in 1868, and in 1900 the city saw a battle of the Thousand Days' War between Colombian liberals and conservatives, fought in what is now Bolívar Park.

After Panama's separation from Colombia, David became the base of the Chiriquí railway, a line of some 165 km built in the 1910s to carry the province's farm produce; the last sections closed in 1990. Electric light arrived in 1920, and in 1931 a road linked the city with the capital, later becoming part of the Pan-American Highway. During the Second World War the airfield served as an auxiliary base for United States aircraft defending the canal. Banking, an enlarged airport and a highway to Boquete have since made David one of the fastest-growing parts of the country.

David is the cultural capital of a province with a strong sense of itself. Chiricanos are known across Panama for their pride in Chiriquí, and the city's biggest events reflect its farming roots and trading role. The Feria de San José de David, held every March, is an international fair, and in November the old quarter of Barrio Bolívar hosts a festival of Chiricano drumming. A cycling tour of Chiriquí is also held in November.

Religion shapes the calendar and the townscape. David is the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese; its Cathedral of San José grew from the colonial chapel at the heart of the first settlement, and the newer Cathedral of the Holy Family stands on the main square. The house of the Obaldía family, a national monument, serves as a cultural centre.

David has produced professional cyclists, footballers and a Major League Baseball player. It is also the home town of José Raúl Mulino, who became Panama's president in 2024. Nightlife centres on bars and clubs where groups share a bottle of local rum.

The city corregimiento of David had 76,863 inhabitants at the 2023 census, and the wider district about 156,500, making it the largest city in Panama outside the capital's metropolitan area. It is relatively affluent, with a broad middle class and low unemployment and poverty by national standards.

David is the economic centre of Chiriquí, producing more than half of the province's output. It trades in the cattle, rice, dairy and vegetables of the surrounding farmland and supplies them to the rest of Panama, and as the region's financial centre it has offices of most national banks. It is also a manufacturing city and a hub for trade with Costa Rica, about 30 km away. Hospitals, universities and shopping centres draw people from all over western Panama.

The city is low and spread out: most people live in single-family houses, and few buildings in the centre rise above two storeys. Wealthier families and many foreigners live in the north, where the malls and franchise strips are. Parque Cervantes, shaded from the sun, is where much of the city passes through in the course of the day.

David eats the food of Chiriquí, Panama's farm belt, and that means beef, rice, beans, maize and dairy. Chiricano cooking is hearty and rural: sancocho, the chicken soup with yam and culantro that is Panama's national dish; beef stewed and served with rice and beans; fried pork chicharrones; and thick maize tortillas with fresh white cheese from the lowland dairies. Breakfasts are built around fried things — hojaldras of fried dough, empanadas and carimañolas stuffed with meat.

The city's fondas, simple eateries serving a set lunch, are where most workers eat, and the streets around Parque Cervantes and the banking district have bakeries and cafés. The surrounding province supplies the produce: vegetables and strawberries from the highlands, trout farmed around Volcán, and coffee from Boquete.

Larger restaurants, grills and the food courts of the shopping centres in the north of the city serve the growing middle class. Sweets such as cocada, a coconut confection, are sold at bus stops and stalls, and the local beers and rum are the standard drinks in bars and clubs.