Antigua Guatemala means "Old Guatemala" and was the third capital of Guatemala, formerly called "Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala".
16th century The first capital of Guatemala was founded east of
Lake Atitlán, on the site of a
Kaqchikel-Maya city, named
Iximche, close to contemporary
Tecpán, Guatemala, on Monday, July 25, 1524—the day of Saint James—and therefore named
Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala (City of
Saint James of the Knights of Guatemala). In accordance with Catholic tradition, St. James (Santiago) became the patron saint of the city. After several
Kaqchikel uprisings, the capital was moved to a more easily controlled site in the Valley of
Almolonga, on November 22, 1527, and kept its original name. This new city was located on the site of present-day San Miguel Escobar, which is a neighborhood in the municipality of
Ciudad Vieja just south of contemporary Antigua. This second capital was destroyed on September 11, 1541, by a devastating
lahar from the
Volcán de Agua. As a result, the colonial authorities decided to move the capital once more, this time north to the Panchoy Valley. So, on March 10, 1543, the Spanish conquistadors founded present-day Antigua, and again, it was named Santiago de los Caballeros. For 230 years, it served as the seat of the
Captaincy General of Guatemala (Spanish: Capitanía General de Guatemala), also known as the Kingdom of Guatemala (Spanish: Reino de Guatemala), an administrative division of the
Spanish Empire, under the viceroyalty of
New Spain in Central America. Hence Santiago de los Caballeros was the third seat of the capital of The Kingdom of Guatemala, which included the current nations of Guatemala,
Belize,
El Salvador,
Honduras,
Nicaragua and
Costa Rica, plus the contemporary state of
Chiapas in
Mexico. After a flood destroyed the second capital, located in the Valley of Almolonga, on the slopes of Volcán de Agua, a new city was built in 1543 in the Valley of Panchoy, and it was established as head of the Real Audiencia of Guatemala in 1549. The new city was laid out in a square pattern, with streets running north to south and from east to west, with a central square. Both church and government buildings were designated important places around the central plaza. Between 1549 and 1563, property southeast of the square was sold to the crown and occupied by the first president of the Real Audiencia de los Confines: the lawyer Alonso Lopez Cerrato, who also served as governor and captain general. The original building was small and paneled with portal, tile roof, and adobe walls. The city is surrounded by three enormous volcanoes and mountains, plains and hills. This territory was called
Valley of Guatemala and had 73 villages, two towns and the city of Santiago de los Caballeros. Due to constant problems between the conquerors and the representatives of the crown sent by the king of Spain, the Audiencia de los Confines was abolished in 1565. In 1570 the assembly was restored, this time independent of the viceroy of Mexico, and was called Audiencia of Guatemala. The Franciscan complex became a major cultural and religious center for the entire Captaincy General of Guatemala. Theologians, jurists, philosophers, physicists, and mathematicians studied in the school of San Buenaventura, which was located where the monastery ruins are. Notable students included
Cristóbal de Villalpando,
Thomas Merlo, and
Alonso de Paz. The first building of a cathedral was begun in 1545 with the debris brought from the destroyed settlement in the valley of Almolonga; however, its construction was hampered by frequent earthquakes throughout the years. The city was the final resting place of the great Spanish chronicler
Bernal Díaz del Castillo, and his remains were interred in one of the churches that was eventually ruined by earthquakes. The construction of the royal houses for the residence of the Captain General and the members of the
Real Audiencia started in 1558; the complex also included the Royal Treasury, jail, Army quarters, the Hall of Arms, and the housing of Audiencia members. In the sixteenth century, there were several important earthquakes on the following dates: • March 21, 1530 • September 11, 1541 • 1565 (exact date unknown) • 1575 (exact date unknown) • November 30, 1577 • December 23, 1585 In 1566 King Felipe II of Spain gave it the title of "Muy Noble y Muy Leal" ("Very Noble and Very Loyal").
17th century The
Jesuits founded the school of "San Lucas of the Society of Jesus" in 1608, which became famous and was unrivaled in terms of literature and grammar lessons; it was attended by the elite nobles of the city society, such as Francisco Antonio Fuentes y Guzman, the chronicler Francisco Vázquez, and Pedro Betancourt. On 18 July 1626, the Jesuit temple was inaugurated; along with the rest of the city, it suffered and was damaged by continuous earthquakes that struck the city between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1653, the San Lucas School had a staff of only thirteen priests, a very small number compared to the size of the building; the Jesuits, however, made a major impact on the cultural and educational life in the
Capitanía General of Guatemala. The school was the city's most prestigious, and from it graduated most of the elite members of society of the time. Most of its students were secular and went on to get the best positions in the country. After a lengthy and cumbersome organizational process that lasted five years, the university started classes on January 7, 1681, with more than sixty registered students under President Doctor José de Baños y Soto Mayor, Cathedral archdeacon, King of Spain preacher and Doctor from the University of Osuna. The university began its activities under the protection of Saint Carlos Borromeo, and its norms and regulations were copied from those of the México University which, in turn, were adapted from those of the
Universidad de Salamanca in Spain. The first classes given in the university were: • Canonic law • Medicine • Scholastic theology • Moral theology • Languages The Royal University of San Carlos Borromeo became pontifical via the
papal bull of
Pope Innocent XI, issued and dated 18 June 1687.
18th century San Miguel Earthquake The strongest earthquakes experienced by the city of Santiago de los Caballeros before its final move in 1776 were the
San Miguel earthquakes in 1717. At that time, the power of the
Catholic Church over the Spanish Empire's citizens was absolute and any natural disaster was considered as divine punishment. In the city, people also believed that the proximity of the
Volcán de Fuego (English: Volcano of Fire) was the cause of earthquakes; the great architect Diego de Porres even said that all the earthquakes were caused by volcano explosions. Photograph by
Arnold Genthe. , as described by prince
Wilhelm of Sweden in 1920. Photograph by
Arnold Genthe. In April 1920, during the very last days of
Manuel Estrada Cabrera regime, prince
Wilhelm of Sweden visited Antigua Guatemala and wrote about his impressions of the city in his book
Between Two Continents. His book is an objective description of the terrible conditions the road and the ruins used to be in: "For some little way outside Guatemala City it was a fairly decent car ride, but then the roads began developing sand drifts, and later,
rockfalls of tumbled stone as two years earlier, the country had been devastated by
a powerful earthquake and government corruption made the recovery impossible". "The hills grew steeper and steeper, the jolting more pronounced and the stones even sharper; besides, on top of the road was a two-foot layer of dust which hid the pitfalls but did not detract from their effect". "Along the way, they passed long lines of Indians on their way to Guatemala City, carrying their heavy burdens with apparent ease; men, women and children carried something in the way of a load, and they all carried it quickly. With respect to traffic, it was almost non-existent, aside from mule-pulled wagons". After passing Mixco, the road proceeded more steeply upward, with a precipitous drop on one side and sheer cliff rising on the other; here and there a cross stood by the wayside, marking the spot where some traveler had died. After reaching the highest point, they started down towards Antigua. The city was in sight when a person in uniform planted himself in front of the car; it turned out to be the city commandant, along with six soldiers with wooden guns. Compared to Guatemala City at the time, Antigua was quite nicely kept, although all the churches were equally dilapidated and left entirely to themselves, as rebuilding since 1773 was confined to the strictly necessary. For the most part, only blank walls and shattered domes remained to greet the visitor by 1920, and some of the churches were in pitiful conditions. In Santa Clara, for example, a mule was grazing, and in the Church of Grace a native family had taken up its quarters, along with their varied collection of domestic animals. But there were other monuments in decent shape: • The Escuela de Cristo was one of the best preserved churches and was united with a convent that was still standing. The priest that received the Prince and his three companions told them that all the silver and gold from the church had already been sold by his predecessors, so that he, to his extreme regret, was unable to sell any to them. • The old
Capuchin monastery with its many underground passages from the monks' cells to those of the nuns was worth a visit, especially one part where the cells were built in a circle surrounding a central common chamber. in the former Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago. ==Geography==