The Church of La Merced is a Catholic temple located in the city
of Antigua Guatemala in Guatemala. The architect Juan de Dios
Estrada was in charge of its construction from 1749. The temple was
inaugurated in 1767.
Guatemalan Ultra-Baroque style, this
temple has two bell towers. On the façade of the church, in its
upper part there is a sculpture of San Pedro Nolasco, founder of the
Mercedarian Order. Below appears Our Lady of Mercy and the
Mercedarian shield. The stucco and brick sculptures of San Ramón
Nonato and San Pedro Armengol are on the left side of the façade.
San Pedro Pascual and Santa María de Cervelló, the first Mercedarian
nun are on the right side.
The "Fuente de Pescados" dates
from the 18th century and was restored in 1944; With 27 meters in
diameter, it is one of the largest colonial fountains in Latin
America. The fountain has the shape of a water lily, a very common
flower in the Guatemalan lowlands, especially in lakes and lagoons.
In the symbology of the ancient Mayan peoples, it is associated with
creation: a god created a water lily from which he came out and the
rest of the gods.
Church of Mercy was used to store a rich collection of paintings and religious objects. However after the earthquake of 1773 it was moved to a new capital. Nevertheless the church kept numerous notable frescoes mad by talented Guatemalan artists.
The church of La Merced was completed and consecrated in 1767, but just six years later, on June 29, 1773, an earthquake destroyed the entire city, which then had to be relocated by order of the Spanish king. La Merced was the only church to survive the earthquake despite being damaged and cracked; however, the adjoining monastery buildings were almost completely destroyed. The baroque altars, which were preserved intact, were transferred in 1815 as part of a ceremonial procession to the Mercedarian Church in Guatemala City, which was only consecrated in 1813.
Church
The façade, covered by vegetal stucco ornaments, with its
striking pairs of double columns, is flanked by two mighty, but
squat-looking towers, the lower part of which – like many Spanish
baroque churches – is almost unadorned; the two upper floors show all
the richer building decor. The founder of the order, Petrus Nolascus, is
standing in a niche in the gable of the façade, accompanied by two
friars. The interior of the church, which is only about 12 meters high,
has a single nave and is vaulted; the crossing is surmounted by a
windowed tambour and a dome. Several altar retables from the 19th and
20th centuries line the walls.
cloister
The huge area of the
cloister is surrounded by partially reconstructed arcades with octagonal
pillars and segmental arches. In the middle there is a huge fountain in
the form of a Gothic polypass with a diameter of 27 meters, the raised
central part of which can be reached with a small fountain bowl over
three short bridges; it has been suggested that the lower part was once
used as a fish farm. The fountain was brought here in 1944 from the
completely destroyed cloister of the San Francisco Convent and restored.