A museum (and reliquary) of colonial Spain

November 19, 2006|Fran Folsom, Globe Correspondent

ANTIGUA, Guatemala -- Founded in 1543 , this city lies in the valley of three volcanoes, Agua, Acatenango, and the smoking, still-active Fuego. It was the colonial capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala (which also included Chiapas, in southern Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica) until 1773, when most of the city was destroyed by earthquakes and fires following one of Fuego's eruptions. The Spanish king, fearing more earthquakes, moved the capital to the present site of Guatemala City, 16 miles to the northeast.

Thirty-eight monastic orders called Antigua home, building convents, monasteries, and cathedrals, using Maya slave laborers who put their own intricately carved designs on the Baroque buildings.

Today, Antigua remains the best single repository of Spanish colonial Baroque architecture in the Americas. In 1979, UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site for its civil and ecclesiastical architectural monuments. While many of the city's original buildings have been destroyed by earthquakes and replaced largely by 18th-century reconstructions, Antigua's greatest structures still lie in ruins softened by masses of hanging bougainvillea.

But the remnants of the past are surrounded by the vibrancy of the present.

Single-story stucco houses in pastel shades of pink, yellow, or green topped with red tile roofs hug the narrow cobblestone streets.

Everywhere I went on a recent visit, the sights and sounds of the city enveloped me: uniformed school children playing riotous games of soccer in schoolyards, mothers carrying their babies on their backs in a wrap slung over their shoulders called a "tzute ," and women wearing "huipils ," traditional blouses in brilliant colors with intricate hand- embroidered designs and wrap skirts in a variety of patterns.

At Nim Po't, a textile museum of traditional Maya dress, I learned the history of the skirts, whose patterns represent the wearer's home town. The museum's shop and galleries highlight the creations of expert weavers from all over Guatemala.

This is a city with few washing machines, so twice a week women gather at the fountain outside the Convent of Santa Clara to wash their laundry, hanging it to dry on the convent's fence. During my visit, several women offered to go to my hotel, collect my laundry, wash and dry it, and return it to the hotel, all for one quetzal, a Guatemalan dollar, or about 15 cents. I passed on having my dirty laundry displayed in public, but handed each of the women a few quetzals, for which I was thanked with hugs and smiles .