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Antigua Market
Antigua Market - chaotic, colorful and always busy - sprawls north of 4a Calle. Morning, when villagers from the Antigua vicinity are actively buying and selling, is the best time to come. On the official market days Mayan women spread their wares over open-air areas north and west of the covered market area. Like many Guatemalan markets, Antigua market is cheek-by-jowl with the bus terminal, adding to the crowds, noise and dirt.
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Arco de Santa Catalina
Arco de Santa Catalina was built in 1694 (to enable nuns to cross the street without being seen) and rebuilt with its clock tower in the 19th century.
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Casa Popenoe
The beautiful Casa Popenoe was built in 1636 by Don Luis de las Infantas Mendoza. After the 1773 earthquake the house stood desolate for 150 years until it was bought in 1929 by agricultural scientist William Popenoe and his wife Dorothy. Their painstaking, authentic restoration yields a fascinating glimpse into how a royal official lived in 17th-century Antigua.
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Catedral de Santiago
The Catedral de Santiago was begun in 1542, demolished in 1668, rebuilt between 1669 and 1680, repeatedly damaged by earthquakes, wrecked in 1773, and only partly rebuilt between 1780 and 1820. The present cathedral, without its expensive original decoration, occupies only the entrance hall of the 17th-century edifice, and strictly speaking is not a cathedral but the Parroquia (Parish Church) de San José. It's most striking at night when it is tastefully lit.
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Cementerio General
Antigua's Cementerio General is a beautiful conglomeration of tombs and mausoleums decked with wreaths, exotic flowers and other signs of mourning. There have been robberies here, so go with the free escort from the Policía Municipal de Turismo.
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Cerro de la Cruz
Overlooking Antigua from the north is Cerro de la Cruz provides fine views looking south over town toward Volcán Agua. In the past this hill was famous for muggers waiting to pounce on unsuspecting visitors, and Antigua's tourism police were formed precisely to counter this threat. The Policía Municipal de Turismo offer a free escort, and it's still best to go with them.
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Colegio de San Jerónimo
The Colegio de San Jerónimo was built in 1757 and used as a school by friars of the Merced order, but because it did not have royal authorization, it was taken over in 1761 by Spain's Carlos III, and in 1765 designated for use as the Real Aduana (Royal Customs House). Today it's a tranquil, mostly open air site. The handsome cloister centers on a lovely octagonal fountain, which operates most days - it's an evocative setting for various dance and other cultural performances.
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Iglesia de San Francisco
Little of the original 16th-century Iglesia de San Francisco remains, but reconstruction and restoration over the centuries have produced a handsome structure. In the north transept is the tomb of Santo Hermano Pedro de San José de Betancurt (1626-67), a Franciscan monk who founded a hospital for the poor in Antigua and earned the gratitude of generations. He's Guatemala's most venerated local Christian figure, and was made a saint in 2002 when Pope John Paul II visited Guatemala.
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Iglesia y Convento de La Recolección
The massive Iglesia y Convento de La Recolección is among Antigua's most impressive monuments. It's set a little ways out of town, and a serene air pervades the site. Built between 1701 and 1715, the church was inaugurated in 1717, but suffered considerable damage from an earthquake that same year. The buildings were destroyed in the earthquake of 1773: enormous chunks of masonry still lie jumbled around the ruined church.
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Iglesia y Convento de Nuestra Señora de la Merced
La Merced is Antigua's most striking colonial church and its construction began in 1548. The most recent of its several bouts of rebuilding has taken place since the 1976 earthquake, and the place is in pretty good shape.
Read more about Iglesia y Convento de Nuestra Señora de la Merced
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Iglesia y Convento de Santa Clara
Iglesia y Convento de Santa Clara was first completed in 1702, and the existing construction, inaugurated in 1734, was wrecked in 1773 but remains large and impressive. In front of the church is one of Antigua's prettiest plazas, lined with palm trees. At the eastern end are public clothes-washing sinks, where some women still come to do their wash, spreading their laundry out on the ground to dry.
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Iglesia y Convento de Santo Domingo
Founded in 1542, Iglesia y Convento de Santo Domingo became the biggest and richest monastery in Antigua. Its large church was completed in 1666. Damaged by three 18th-century earthquakes, the buildings were further depleted when pillaged for construction material in the 20th century. The site is currently occupied by the Hotel Casa Santo Domingo. You can visit the hotel's public spaces, which are tastefully dotted with colonial statuary and archaeological pieces, any time.
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Las Capuchinas
Inaugurated in 1736 by nuns from Madrid, Las Capuchinas, was seriously damaged by the 1773 earthquake and thereafter abandoned. Restoration began in 1943 and continues today. Looking around at the high, arched passageways, pretty gardens and stately courtyards, it's tempting to think that the nuns who lived here were onto a good thing. The building has many unusual features, including a unique tower-like building of 18 nuns' cells built around a circular patio.
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Monumento a Landívar
Commemorating Jesuit priest and poet Rafael Landívar (1731-93), Monumento a Landívar is a structure of five colonial-style arches set in a pristine little park. Landívar lived and wrote in Antigua for some time, and his poetry is esteemed as the best of the colonial period, even though much of it was written in Italy after the Jesuits were expelled from Guatemala. Landívar's ruined house is behind the monument.
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Museo de Arte Colonial
The San Carlos University, now in Guatemala City, was founded in Antigua in 1676; what used to be its main building (built in 1763), houses the Museo de Arte Colonial, with some expressive sculptures of saints and paintings by leading Mexican artists of the colonial era, such as Miguel Cabrera and Juan de Correa.
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Museo de Santiago
The Museo de Santiago is housed in the City Hall (which dates mostly from 1743) in the former town jail. The mermaid statues that once graced the fountain in the Central Park are here, along with a room full of creepy portraits whose eyes follow you everywhere. Also on exhibit are canons from the Castillo San Felipe and some good examples of colonial era pottery.
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Museo del Hermano Pedro
This museum houses relics from the Iglesia de San Francisco and the Santo Hermano's curiously well-preserved personal belongings, including some spectacularly uncomfortable-looking underwear. The pasillo de los milagros is a corridor jam-packed with testimonials, photos, plaques and crutches donated by people who claim to have been healed by the Hermano.
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Museo del Libro Antiguo
The Museo del Libro Antiguo showcases the greatest hits of the early days of Guatemalan printing, plus a replica of Guatemala's first printing press, which began work here in the 1660s. There is an entire room dedicated to the process of making marbled paper.
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Palacio de los Capitanes
Dating from 1558, the Palacio de los Capitanes was the governmental center of all Central America from Chiapas to Costa Rica until 1773. It didn't gain its stately double-arcaded facade, which marches proudly along the southern side of the park, until the early 1760s, however. Today the palace houses the Inguat tourist office, the national police and the office of the governor of Sacatepéquez department.
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Parque Central
This broad and beautiful plaza, easily the loveliest in the country, is the gathering place for Antigüeños and visitors alike - a fine, verdant place to sit or stroll and observe Antigua happening around you, from hawkers and shoe shiners to school kids and groups of tourists. The famous central fountain is a 1936 reconstruction of the original 1738 version.
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