Antigua

Famed for its colonial architecture and Easter processions, Antigua Guatemala is a quiet, beautiful town nestled in the shadow of three forested volcanoes. It has been named World Cultural Patrimony by UNESCO and is one of the country's most popular tourist destinations, offering a truly outstanding variety of elegant restaurants, hotels and specialty shops. Many people come to study in Antigua's many exceptional Spanish schools, which have achieved world renown for the quality of their instruction.

Founded in 1543, Antigua was originally known as the Very Noble and Loyal City of Saint James of the Knights of Guatemala, and was the third capital founded by the unlucky Spaniards in Guatemala. The first, a temporary headquarters near the Maya city of IximchÈ, was abandoned after the city's Kaqchiquel inhabitants rebelled at exorbitant demands for gold. The second, today called Ciudad Vieja and found a short distance from Antigua, was washed away in a flood. The third city, now known as Antigua Guatemala, served as the capital of all Central America for 230 years, and was home to a number of religious orders that built elaborate monasteries and convents.

The disaster-prone city was rebuilt after each of a dozen earthquakes, and much of what can be seen today was built following the earthquake of 1717. Finally, after a devastating quake in 1773, Guatemala's governor ordered the city abandoned and a new capital built where present-day Guatemala City now stands. The ruined houses and structures lay, virtually forgotten, until the latter half of the 19th-century, when coffee was planted in Antigua's fertile valley and interest in the colonial city reawakened.

Spectacularly beautiful, the city's quiet streets today are often occupied by local artists with easels and paint boxes set up, lovingly painting the scene of a volcano framed by a colonial arch. Contemporary Antigua Guatemala is a cosmopolitan center of learning, with a fine library and research institute for visiting archaeologists, a cultural center that hosts films and plays, a dozen language schools, and a biennial arts festival featuring performances of ballet, opera and classical music. It is also the site of annual processions during Easter week, the most beautiful religious celebration in the Americas.