The fascinating Antigua Guatemala
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The town of Antigua, also referred as Antigua Guatemala (=Old Guatemala) or La Antigua, has been for 200 years the wealthy capital of the Spanish province of Guatemala. Don’t think to the former province of Guatemala as a forefather of the today tiny state of Guatemala! The Spanish province of Guatemala stretched from Peru and included the southernmost part of Mexico, the state of Chiapas.
Santa catalina Arch is a landmark for Antigua and its colonial architecture
Obviously for any visitor, the developpment of Antigua was fully planified. There are churches, avenidas and former administrative buildings which are still nice, imposing and very well preserved, which made from Antigua an UNESCO heritage site.
Antigua was founded in 1524 and reached 60 000 inhabitants in 1770 when a strong earthquake pushed the Spanish administration to move away the capital of Guatemala in the new build Ciudad de Guatemala. In the late XVIIIth century the bulk of the population moved away, but some locals prefered to stay.
