Today was a rest day in Antigua. I spent the day reading up a little about the history of the place and walking around the sites taking pictures as its a really beautiful little town.
Courtesy of Wikipedia…”Antigua Guatemala (Ancient Guatemala) was founded on March 10, 1543 by the Spanish conquistadors although it was originally named Santiago de los Caballeros. For more than 200 years it served as the seat of the military governor of the Spanish colony of Guatemala, a large region that included almost all of present-day Central America and the southernmost States of Mexico. On September 29, 1717, an estimated 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Antigua Guatemala, and destroyed over 3,000 buildings. Much of the city’s architecture was ruined. Again, in 1773, the Santa Marta Earthquakes destroyed much of the town. In 1776, the Spanish Crown ordered the removal of the capital to a safer location, where the modern capital of Guatemala, Guatemala city, now stands. The badly damaged city of Santiago de los Caballeros was ordered abandoned, although not everyone left, and was thereafter referred to as la Antigua Guatemala (the Old Guatemala).”
Much of the city has not yet been repaired and many of the buildings that were destroyed in the abovementioned earthquakes have been left standing in the exact same state that they were in post the earthquake. These ruins have become major attractions for Antigua as they speak to a simpler more elegant time…
I was up just after sunrise to start capturing some of the images..
Rooftops of Antigua with the Volcan de Agua, the prominent and one of three that surround the town, in the background.
Beautiful old colonial architecture..
The spires of the Escuela de Cristo, one of the intact buildings.
The church of San Francisco, mostly intact.
Central American buses are old yellow US school buses painted up in crazy paint schemes. No 2 are alike!!
Pensive vendor woman at the entrance of the church of San Francisco..
Inside the ruins of the former Santa Clara Monastery..
The ruins of the former El Carmen Church..
The 3 images above are the ruins of La Recoleccion. Its really interesting to see how it all fell apart in big chunks rather than crumbling into little bits and the pieces of original glazed stone mosaic that are still intact after all these centuries.
La Merced.
The arch in the main street of the town which also shows how the volcan de Agua looms so large over the daily life of this town.
Tomorrow I head for Tikal in northern Guatemala where I will spend 2 nights exploring THE pre-eminent Mayan Ruins in existence today!!
