Look what i've got a few weeks ago in my mailbox!! A guatemalan card sent as an official from Germany. On this card i've two of my wishes, a volcano, the Volcán de Agua and a missing UNESCO site, Antigua Guatemala, the only I still needed from this country!!
Antigua Guatemala is a city in the central highlands of Guatemala famous for its well-preserved Spanish Baroque influenced architecture as well as a number of spectacular ruins of colonial churches. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.
© Photo by Marino Cattelan
Antigua, the capital of the Captaincy-General of Guatemala, was founded in the
early 16th century.
After several Kaqchikel uprisings, the capital was moved to a more suitable site in the Valley of Almolonga in 1527 and kept its original name. This city 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 five miles away 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 more than 200 years it served as the seat of the military governor of the Spanish colony of Guatemala.
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. The damage the earthquake did to the city made authorities consider moving the capital to another city.
In 1773, the Santa Marta earthquakes destroyed much of the town, which led to the third change in location for the city.[4] The Spanish Crown ordered, in 1776, the removal of the capital to a safer location, the Valley of the Shrine, where Guatemala City, the modern capital of Guatemala, 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). - in: wikipedia
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