Antigua

The ancient capital of the country, the city of Antigua-Guatemala founded in 1524 is located 45 km from Guatemala City in the valley the Panchen between the volcanoes Agua, Fuego and Acatenango. Before the earthquake in 1773, so strong that most of the city was destroyed and the inhabitants have long thought about whether to rebuild it, Antigua was the center of culture and education for all of America.

Today it is a city-museum with lots of restored monuments and the main tourist center of the country, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The most interesting sites of the city are the central square Parque Central, the Cathedral of San Jose, the Palace of the Captains (1558), Municipality (1740), the Arch of Santa Catalina – the only remained construction of the convent (1609), the Church La Merced with a beautiful carved facade, the church of San Francisco (1579).

Antigua is a small tourist reserve where the time stood stockstill several hundred years ago. There is the cobblestone on its roads, all its houses are one-storied, and the advertisement and all modern signboards are forbidden in the city. Even the street signs here are archaistic.

The mountainous terrain lying around Antigua is probably the most charming and beautiful part of the country. The chain of majestic volcanoes in the south and the high mountain ranges that dominate in its northern borders, frame the edge of the gentle mountains, lakes, rivers and picturesque mountain deep valleys. The three of the thirteen volcanic cones above the western edge of the area are still active – Pacaya, Fuego and Santiagito. Even in spite of the threat of elements, the countryside around is beautiful and calm, valleys with terraces on the slopes irrigated by pristine rivers are populated by friendly and proud people, which almost entirely are the descendants of the Maya (they are very proud of it, by the way). It is worth to visit the Centre of coffee in Alotenango, the great caldera lake near Panajachel, the traditional Indian villages of Santa Maria de Jesus and Santiago Atitlan, the market town of Solola and other towns around the extraordinarily beautiful Atitlan Lake, or take the walking path on the slopes of the formidable local volcanoes.