Skip to main content

Antigua Guatemala

Antigua Guatemala, commonly known as Antigua or La Antigua, is a city in the central highlands of Guatemala. The city was the capital of the Captaincy General of Guatemala from 1543 through 1773, with much of its Baroque-influenced architecture and layout dating from that period. These characteristics had it designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Antigua Guatemala serves as the capital of the homonymous municipality and the Sacatepéquez Department.

It was founded by the Spaniards in 1543, under the name of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, with the aim of becoming the third capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala. The conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo, former companion of Hernán Cortés, was its governor for a long time. It is recognized, while developing during the Golden Age, as the third most beautiful city in the Spanish Indies. It hosted for a time the third university on the continent, the Universidad de San Carlos de Borromeo, founded in 1676, whose premises now house a museum and a classical concert hall.

As with many colonial cities in Latin America, the city plan is Hippodamian, consisting of streets that intersect at right angles around a main plaza.

On many occasions the city is victim of earthquakes. It was through this violence of nature, devastating the Spanish city of Antigua and burying it under the ruins of an earthquake, that the city lost its status: after the earthquake of 1773, the Spanish government decided to move the capital in another place. It has retained its original appearance ever since. In 1976, a new earthquake also destroyed several churches.

Main Street.
Antigua's main street is Fifth Avenue (5a Avenida). In the background we can see Santa Catalina Arch.


Convento Santa Catalina.
Now Hotel Convento Santa Catalina by AHS.


Bakery and Pastry Doña Luisa Xicotencatl.
The facade is decorated with floral motifs.


Alameda Del Calvario.
Ruins of the Church of Our Lady of Remedies.


Church School of Christ.
The School of Christ Church (Iglesia Escuela de Cristo) was founded in the hermitage of Vera Cruz in 1664 and since 1689 it was known as the Congregation of San Felipe de Neri.

  • Due to the 1717 San Miguel earthquakes, the building was damaged, and its reconstruction was completed in 1730 under the direction of the Chief Architect Diego de Porres.
  • After the Santa Marta earthquake in 1773, the church moved to the facilities of the parish of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, when it moved to Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción.
  • Its façade boasts Renaissance architecture and is made of stone, like the Capuchinas church, a characteristic that differentiates it from the other temples in the town.
  • The church is located in the extreme southwest of La Antigua Guatemala, eight blocks from the Central Park, in the direction of the town of Santa María de Jesús on Calle de los Pasos, which is the street where the chapels that correspond to the steps of the Via Crucis installed by the Franciscans and in which religious rites were performed during Holy Week.
  • The Church of the School of Christ differs from the rest of the buildings in the colonial city: stucco was not used to cover the work and its design is quite symmetrical and simple; only the bell towers are white.
  • It remains in good condition to date and the church is open to the public.

Hospital de San Pedro.
San Pedro is a hospital and adjacent church founded in 1663 by Dominican friars. During the nineteenth century it started being managed by Capuchin nuns, who made some improvements to the building. In 1869, the Charity Sisters of San Vicente de Paul took charge of the building.

  • The first hospital in Antigua was founded by Hermano Pedro Betancourt, a Franciscan priest in the early 1600s in a small thatched hut near the present site of the Belen Convent. Brother Pedro became known for physically picking the sick and abandoned up in the streets and carrying them to his hospital in his arms or on his back. He often roamed the streets ringing a bell asking for donations to feed and clothe those in his care. He wore the rags and tattered clothing of those that he served.
  • Over the next three hundred years the hospital was destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt many times.
  • See more at Hospital de San Pedro, Antigua Guatemala - Wikipedia.

See also

Source

Location

Location: Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala