Antigua Walking Tour Morning and Afternoon

The Plaza Central Park

The Plaza Mayor is the starting point to visit all of Antigua Guatemala, planned in 1541. It was in 1541 when, using the square and the compass, the engineer Don Juan Bautista Antonelli carried out the project by arranging the city by line in a reticulated urban organization. The blocks were distributed from a central square where the main buildings were to be located: town hall, cathedral, shops and others. The measure of the square is 112 meters from north to south and 115 meters from east to west (138 rods from east to west and 134 from north to south). The angles of the square are composed: To the north, by the portal of Chains and the Palace of the Noble City Hall, to the east by the Episcopal Palace and the Cathedral of Santiago, to the south by the Royal Palace, to the west by the Merchants Portal or Panaderas, in the center is the source of the Sirens, built in 1739 by Diego de Porres. The square currently has five Esquisúchil trees that were planted around 1994.

Catedral de San Jose

The Parish of San José, located in the city of Antigua Guatemala, is part of the Archdiocese of Guatemala and is located in a section of the former Cathedral of Santiago de los Caballeros, which was destroyed by the Earthquakes of Santa Marta. The first building of the cathedral was started in 1545 with the debris brought from the destroyed settlement in the Almolonga valley, which had been a second attempt to found a town in the region. Its complete construction was hindered by frequent earthquakes over the years. On April 7, 1669 the temple was demolished and a second sanctuary would be inaugurated in 1680 under the direction of Juan Pascual and José de Porres, and there is also evidence that the Spanish engineer and imager Martín de Andújar Cantos worked on its reconstruction.

The University of San Carlos de Guatemala (also known and called by its acronym: USAC) is the largest and oldest university in Guatemala, being also the only national in that Central American country. This is the fourth university founded in America. It was established in the Captaincy General of Guatemala during the Spanish colony and remained the only one in Guatemala until 1954. Royal and Pontifical University of San Carlos Borromeo (1676-1829): Established during the colony by the Spanish Crown in the seventeenth century, approved by the Holy See and directed by the regular orders of the Catholic Church. After the independence of 1821 it was called only Pontifical University.