A few weeks ago we visited Antigua Guatemala (yeah I know, I'm super behind on updating). Antigua was the third capital city of Guatemala before it was mostly destroyed by an earthquake. The picture to the right is of the only usable portion of what is left of the Cathedral of Antigua, destroyed in the earthquake of 1717. Because of the earthquake, there are plenty of ruins to admire in Antigua. So, naturally, we commenced to explore them! Below are pictures of the ruins of the Cathedral. It was fairly awe inspiring to see the horrific destruction still evident after three hundred years. There was a lot to see, to be sure.
I didn't actually know too much about Antigua before I visited (what a bad tourist I am!). However, as I was wandering around the ruins of the Cathedral, I noticed this charming little detail:
It's a shell, of course! But not just any shell. The reason it caught my eye is because it's a shell of St. James, and I recognized it because I used to walk past shells like it every day when I studied in Spain, where I lived on one of the cities along the Camino de Santiago (The Way/pilgrimage of St. James). On The Way, pilgrims are guided by these shells, sometimes carved into buildings, like the one above, or frequently by brass cast shells laid into pavement or attached to buildings. This got me thinking: why would a marker of the Camino be here in Antigua all the way across the Atlantic? So, I snapped a quick photo of it to remind me to investigate further when I got back to my computer.
Then, as I was wandering through the ruins of the monasteries (also located in Antigua) and reading many of the plaques located therein, some of the plaques seemed to indicate that Antigua Guatemala had originally been named something else, curiouser and curiouser! Could this be related to the shell of St. James which I spied in the Cathedral? With my interest peaked, I resolved to find out.
Sure enough, Antigua was originally founded on July 25th, in 1524, St. James day. So naturally, the ever faithful (or at least apparently faithful) Spaniards named it Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros de Goathemalan, the City of Saint James of the Knights of Guatemala. And so named, St. James also was the patron saint of the new city. Relevant side note: the the Spaniards were not the first to establish a town in this area, the Kakchikel-Maya were settled there first, and then the Spaniards moved in and renamed it. Twas ever thus in the history of power and oppression, conquistadores de la cabeza a los pies.
So there you have it, a little bit of an unexpected and roundabout history lesson
Then, as I was wandering through the ruins of the monasteries (also located in Antigua) and reading many of the plaques located therein, some of the plaques seemed to indicate that Antigua Guatemala had originally been named something else, curiouser and curiouser! Could this be related to the shell of St. James which I spied in the Cathedral? With my interest peaked, I resolved to find out.
Sure enough, Antigua was originally founded on July 25th, in 1524, St. James day. So naturally, the ever faithful (or at least apparently faithful) Spaniards named it Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros de Goathemalan, the City of Saint James of the Knights of Guatemala. And so named, St. James also was the patron saint of the new city. Relevant side note: the the Spaniards were not the first to establish a town in this area, the Kakchikel-Maya were settled there first, and then the Spaniards moved in and renamed it. Twas ever thus in the history of power and oppression, conquistadores de la cabeza a los pies.
So there you have it, a little bit of an unexpected and roundabout history lesson
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