Ciudad Vieja
| Ciudad Vieja | |
|---|---|
| Municipality and town | |
Facade of the church of Ciudad Vieja
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 Ciudad Vieja
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| Coordinates: 14°31′24″N 90°46′0″W / 14.52333°N 90.76667°WCoordinates: 14°31′24″N 90°46′0″W / 14.52333°N 90.76667°W | |
| Country |
 Guatemala
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| Department |
 Sacatepéquez
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| Population (2002) | |
| • Total | 25,696 |
| Time zone | Central Time (UTC-6) |
| Climate | Cwb |
Ciudad Vieja (Spanish pronunciation: [sjuˈðað ˈβjexa]) is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Sacatepéquez. According to the 2002 Guatemalan Census, the municipality has a total of 25,696 people. Ciudad Vieja was the second site of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, the colonial capital of the country.
San Miguel Escobar is the modern name for the district that contains the ruins of the second colonial capital of the Guatemala region. The Spaniards founded their capital here in 1527, after their previous capital at Tecpán Guatemala became untenable. The city was destroyed by a catastrophic lahar from Volcan de Agua in 1541, and the survivors had no choice but to abandon the site. Among the casualties was the governor Beatriz de la Cueva.
Jorge de Alvarado founded the second capital here for the Captaincy General of Guatemala in 1527; but, according to historian Domingo Juarros, there was already discrepancy on the exact location of the original placement of Ciudad Vieja back in 1818. In his book Compendio de la Historia de la Ciudad de Guatemala (English: Brief history of Guatemala City') he wrote: "But it is noteworthy, that the authors talk with variety on this matters: each one of them talks about this fact based on the system that one follows. [...] Thus, there is a group that says that the Spaniards set the city temporarily in Almolonga, and therefore, the attest to the fact that the City was on the location right to the East, in the place the natives call Tzacualpa, resulting in that the first Almolonga settlement ended up being a barrio in Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala. [On the other hand, there is a group that says] that the Spaniards found the city on top of King's Sinacam old court, or Guatemala de los Indios, located in the actual Tzacualpa valley."
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