| Antigua Guatemala: Records from its architectonic past III | |
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The temples of Antigua Guatemala remind us of an era where religion and state were joined, but also, they reveal us how was the culture of the residents of that time, the ones seem to have stayed locked up in its walls.
Hospital San Pedro (San Pedro's Hospital)
Four cloisters form the design. The main one was to one side of the church and the next one in the northeast corner. These two still work as a hospital for the convalescent. Due to an inadequate restoration work, the building is really deteriorated. According to a project dated from 1982, the other cloisters and the morgue area are still pending for renovation.
Type of building: Ecclesiastical
Present address: 3a. Avenida Sur y 6a. Calle Oriente, esquina.
Original address: Calle de las Campanas.
Presently used as: Hospital and monument in ruins
Original intend: A hospital for priests.
The faade includes three horizontal bodies. The first one has a door in the middle, with a semicircle arch and geometrical decorations, rectilinear cornice with stone projecting roofs, with a window over-frame to the sides, forming a rosette. The second body repeats the first one, including a window with chamfer and geometrical decorations. The crest of the faade is the church tower, in the middle, with three small windows.
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Iglesia y Convento de Santo Domingo (Church and Convent of Santo Domingo)The Dominicans Domingo de Betanzos, Bartolomé de las Casas, Luis Cáncer, Pedro de Angulo y Rodrigo de Ladrada intervened in the story of this complex. It is more destroyed in comparison to the others from previous centuries, because it served as a quarry in the XIX Century. Still in the year 1934 you could follow the plan following the remains, but during the next ten years a daily parade of wagons took away even the leftovers to use them as construction material.
Type of building: Ecclesiastical
Present address: Calle de la Rubio o de Beatas Indias
Original address: Plaza de Santo Domingo
Presently used as: Building in ruins and for housing
Original intend: Ecclesiastical
The front of the building had two towers with ten bells, one of them of big dimensions. In one of these towers they placed the first public clock, brought from Santiago in 1553. The construction of what used to be a magnificent invention was the work of Fray Felix de Mata, especially its fountain and the cloister. But there is no concrete evidence to determine what was the style used in the faade.
Templo de Nuestra Se–ora de Candelaria (Temple of our Lady of Candelaria)This temple has only one aisle, with a proportion of four to one, with a simple aspect. But according to historians it used to have a magnificent main altar, of which we have few remains but enough to determine its ancient proportions. Its entrance was on the front, and to the right side it used to have a closed garden, something that other city temples do not have.
Type of building: Temple in ruins
Present address: 1a. Avenida Norte y Calle de Candelaria
Presently used as: Ruins
Original intend: Temple
According to Jose Morente, the faade is one of the finest examples of baroque style of the New World. Its neomudejar and plateresque characteristics manifest in the embellished ornamental plasterwork (Arabian work that represents vegetable motives modeled in plaster) the shells, the cherubs and the geometrical drawings.
Ermita, Colegio de San Jerónimo y Real Aduana (Hermitage, School of San Jeronimo and Royal Customhouse)On March 15, 1726, the City Hall decided to support the Order of Our Lady of Mercy to found a school of minor studies, which was finished, without the Royal License, on 1757. By order of Carlos III, dated December 6, 1761 the building was confiscated, because it was built without the royal consent. It had two levels and a small hermitage of only one aisle and an austere faade. At the present time, the innovation from the Order of our Lady of Mercy, however, is very complete.
Type of building: Hermitage, school and customhouse in ruins
Present address: Alameda Santa Lucía, final
Original address: Calle de la Recolección
Presently used as: Building in ruins
Original intend: Hermitage, school and Royal customhouse
The main faade is projected towards the street of La Recolección. It has high walls that allow seeing the rhythm of the bays of the windows in the upper part, in which some of them still possess masonry windowsills. The main front was composed by two pillowed pilasters with an entrance of semicircle (tapiado) with a panel of a Moorish arch richly decorated with stucco and above the entablature there is a niche that surely hosted an image of San Jeronimo.
Edición de León Aguilera Radford, con información del CNPAG.
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