Day 323: Antigua

After two days in Antigua doing fascinating stuff like making chocolate and climbing volcanoes, I decided that today I finally had to do what I had come to Antigua for in the first place: visit the churches and museums in the city. My first stop was the cathedral. A small part of the cathedral - I'd guess something like a fifth -  has been restored and is actually used as a church today. The rest has been left standing in its ruined state and is open to visitors. Basically, the entire roof has collapsed in one of the 18th century earthquakes, but the pillars and some arches are still standing, along with some of the decoration that used to adorn the pillars. The cathedral must have been a pretty grand building when it was intact - but for me, the open roof most certainly also created an air of grandeur.

Leaving the cathedral, I turned to the other side of the plaza to visit a museum dedicated to old books. For the entrance fee they charged, the museum was a little disappointing, but I found some bits to interest me anyway. One of the main pieces in the exhibition was a replica of the first Guatemalan printing press (the original is somewhere in Guatemala City). They also had the dates when the printing press arrived in Guatemala: after the invention by Gutenberg, it had taken about 200 years for the press to get to Guatemala.

The rest of the museum consisted of a small collection of old books, for example records of the earthquakes responsible for the destruction of Antigua and the subsequent move of the nation's capital to Guatemala City.

They also had some small books that I guess were something like newspapers and, of course, a ton of religious literature too. After all, it had been the bishop who had asked the Spanish crown for a printing press for Guatemala.

After lunch, my last big stop for the day was something called El Paseo de los Museos, or museum promenade. For a relatively modest entry fee, there were a handful of museums spread throughout the former Santo Domingo convent. The convent itself had also been affected by the 18th century earthquakes, of course, and so in between the various museums, remains of the convent's ruins were located. The topics of the museums in the complex were incredibly widespread: there was pharmacy, local dress, archaeology, silverware, candles, contemporary art, and a combination of pre-colombian art and modern glass - which worked surprisingly well. The displays in this museum were arranged by theme - animals, people, etc. - and each display case had both Mayan objects and modern glass art representing the same theme. I especially liked that, although very different at first glance, the objects were kind of similar in their representation of our world. Very well done! This is an incense burner adorned with butterflies - among the Mayans a symbol for fire, among other things.

Indigenous people in Guatemala dress beautifully, and it is very common to see men and women in traditional dress going about their daily life. This is an example from the traditional handicrafts museum:

What makes Antigua so charming - apart from the cobblestone streets and colorful buildings - is the lack of modernism. There are no steel-and-glass facades and no supersized advertisement signs. Even the fast food chain restaurants have to limit themselves to a modest monochrome logo on the wall.

And then, of course, there are half-ruined churches to discover every few blocks. There must have been at least ten to twenty big churches in Antigua - a town that had never had more than 50.000 inhabitants.