Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Antigua Highlights
Resurrect your high-school Spanish at such highly regarded language schools as
Proyecto Lingüístico Fran-
cisco Marroquín
(
Click here
)
Get historical in Antigua's myriad museums, monasteries and convents, starting with the spectacular
Iglesia y
Convento de Santo Domingo
(
Click here
)
Admire and acquire traditional Maya wear at
Casa del Tejido Antiguo
(
Click here
), with a seminal collection
of
huipiles
(long, embroidered tunics) and
cortes
(wraparound skirts)
Sample a clandestine mezcal at
Café No Sé
(
Click here
), the low-lit lair of choice for Antigua's expat scene
Scale
Acatenango
(
Click here
) for jaw-dropping views of its sister volcanoes, including fire-spewing
Fuego
(
Click here
)
Savor volcanic coffee beans at the
Centro Cultural La Azotea
(
Click here
)
History
Antigua wasn't the Spaniards' first choice for a capital city. That honor goes to Iximché,
settled in 1524 to keep an eye on the Kaqchiquel, with whom they had an uneasy truce. Th-
ings got uneasier when the Kaqchiquel rebelled, so the city was moved in 1527 to present-
day Ciudad Vieja on the flanks of Volcán Agua. That didn't work out, either - the town
practically disappeared under a mudslide in 1541. And so it was that on March 10, 1543,
La muy Noble y muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros de Goathemala, the Span-
ish colonial capital of Guatemala, was founded. The long-winded title attests to the
founders' reverence for Saint James, to whom their early military victories were attributed.
Antigua was once the epicenter of power throughout Central America, and during the
17th and 18th centuries little expense was spared on the city's architecture, despite the reg-
ular ominous rumbles from the ground below. Indigenous labor was marshaled to erect
schools, hospitals, churches and monasteries, their grandeur only rivaled by the houses of
the upper clergy and the politically connected.
At its peak Antigua had no fewer than 38 churches, as well as a university, printing
presses, a newspaper and a lively cultural and political scene. Those rumblings never
stopped, though, and for a year the city was shaken by earthquakes and tremors until the
devastating earthquake of July 29, 1773. A year later, the capital was transferred again, this
time to Guatemala City. Antigua was evacuated and plundered for building materials but,
despite official mandates that its inhabitants relocate and that the city be systematically dis-
mantled, it was never completely abandoned. Fueled by a coffee boom early in the next
