Church and Convent of Capuchins is a former Roman Catholic monastery that is currently turned into a museum. It is one of the oldest such buildings in Antigua.
Church and Convent of Capuchins was originally called Convent and Church of Our Lady of Pilar in Zaragoza. In 1731 the construction of this Roman Catholic complex has began after local authorities received personal approval by Filipe V, king of Spain. It was built under supervision of the famous architect Diego de Porres and finally consecrated in 1736.
The construction, originally called "Convent and Church of Nuestra
Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza", was approved by Felipe V in 1725 just
when the Order of Poor Clares Capuchinas arrived in the town. The work
began in 1731 and was consecrated in the year from 1736 under the
supervision of Diego de Porres; in fact, it was the last convent founded
in the city and the first to abandon the habit of demanding dowry for
new inmates, a circumstance that had prevented low-income young people
from accepting religious life.
The daily routine of the professed
was governed by a strict regulation that included the maximum rules of
poverty, penance and fasting; likewise, they had to subsist on alms
provided by the faithful.
After the Santa Marta earthquake
In
1773, as a result of the earthquakes in Santa Marta, and although the
convent was not completely affected, its assets were transferred to the
new Guatemala de la Asunción. With the property abandoned, its sale was
authorized in 1813 by the Archbishop. From then on, the facilities were
used for various uses, since coffee was dried in its patio and a dry
cleaner's also operated.
Twentieth century
In April 1920,
during the last days of the government of Licenciado Manuel Estrada
Cabrera, Prince Guillermo of Sweden visited Antigua Guatemala and wrote
his impressions of it in his book Between two continents. His book is an
objective description of the condition of the city and the deplorable
state of the road between Guatemala City and Antigua: "for a short
stretch when leaving Guatemala City the road was in acceptable
condition, but then it began to to see small dunes and later streams
that crossed the road, small ravines and landslides, since it had been
two years since the area had been hit by the powerful 1917 earthquake
and government corruption prevented any recovery". towards Antigua the
mountains became steeper and steeper and the rocks more pronounced;
Furthermore, on top of the road there was a layer of dust sixty
centimeters high, which hid the potholes, but did not eliminate their
effects on the structure of the vehicle. Along the way they saw long
lines of indigenous people going towards Guatemala City, carrying heavy
loads on their backs with apparent ease; men, women and children carried
something on their backs, and they did it with a quick step. And as for
the traffic, there was none, except for one or two carts pulled by
mules.
After passing Mixco, the road became even steeper, with a
deep ravine on one side, and a ridge rising on the other; It was very
common to find crosses on the side of the road, which marked the place
where a traveler had lost his life. After reaching the highest point,
they began the descent towards Antigua Guatemala. They were already
arriving when a uniformed officer in torn and dirty clothing stopped
them and welcomed them into the city: he was the commander and he was
accompanied by six barefoot soldiers armed with wooden rifles. Compared
with the deplorable state in which they were Where Guatemala City was
located in 1920 - practically in ruins due to government neglect -
Antigua Guatemala was fine, although the vast majority of the churches
were dilapidated and completely abandoned. In many of the churches, only
incomplete walls and collapsed domes remained, and some of them were
even in deplorable conditions: Santa Clara served as a mule farm, while
the Church of Gracia served as a shelter for a family of natives and
their domestic animals.
But there were some monuments in good
condition:
The parish of the School of Christ was one of the best
preserved churches and undoubtedly the most picturesque, together with
its convent that was still standing. The priest who received the prince
and his three companions informed them that all the gold and silver in
the enclosure had already been sold by his ancestors and that he was
very sorry that he could not sell anything to them, although the Swedes
were not interested in such a purchase.
The old convent of the
Capuchins with its many underground passages between the cells of the
monks and those of the nuns was a place worth visiting, especially the
part where the cells were built in a circle around a common courtyard.
In 1943 the official preservation of the convent began, after it was
declared a National Monument of Guatemala by the government of General
Jorge Ubico Castañeda, and around 1950 the Institute of Anthropology and
History of Guatemala carried out restoration work. Since 1972 the
building has housed the offices of the National Council for the
Protection of La Antigua Guatemala. Currently it is one of the most
visited sites by national and international tourism in this city.
The convent had the capacity to accommodate 25 to 28 nuns under the supervision of an abbess. The so-called "retirement tower", in the shape of a circle, is unique in America. This cloister was made up of cells that had their own toilet and study area, which is why it has come to be considered the first apartment building on the continent; under the novitiate there is a vault with a column three meters in diameter at the top. the shape of a mushroom that supports the construction. The facade of the monastic church is worked in stone, as is the Escuela de Cristo Church, a characteristic that distinguishes them from the other colonial temples in the town.