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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 





AN ANCIENT FOUNTAIN IN A 



There are many such details to impress one with the quondam beauty of this shattered and 



abandoned capital. 



beasts were so terrified that, losing their 

 natural instinct, they quitted their re- 

 treats and sought shelter among the 

 habitations of men." 



TIME BEAUTIFIES A CITY IN RUINS 



Other disasters are recorded for 1679, 

 1 68 1, 1683, 1684, 1687, 1689, and 1705. 

 In 1717 the citizens became so alarmed 

 at the terrifying phenomena that they 

 asked leave to abandon the city, but be- 

 fore the license arrived they had recov- 

 ered from their fears. The fate of 

 Antigua Guatemala was sealed by the 

 formidable earthquakes of 1773, culmi- 

 nating in the dreadful convulsion of 

 July 29. 



Today one finds a peaceful town domi- 

 nated by majestic ruins that the soft 

 hand of Time has made beautiful. The 

 refurbished facade of the cathedral looks 

 down upon the central square of the city 

 and conceals a vast extent of broken 

 vaults. Through a side gate you enter 



the broken nave and pass down under 

 the central dome, where the pendentives 

 are rich with angels and labyrinthine 

 scrollwork ; or you climb to the roof and 

 walk gingerly over the grass-grown hum- 

 mocks of egg-shell vaulting to the low 

 parapets of the cornice. 



Throughout the modern town and, in- 

 deed, far beyond its limits, one encoun- 

 ters . the wrecks of temples or comes 

 unexpectedly on fountains or wayside 

 shrines. There are said to be over forty 

 edifices of divine worship in Antigua 

 Guatemala — some restored in part, others 

 utterly deserted. 



SEEKING SAFETY FOR A CITY IN THE 

 SHADOW OF A CHURCH 



When it was apparent that Antigua 

 should be abandoned, the government 

 cast around for a likely spot for the capi- 

 tal and finally decided on the present lo- 

 cation of Guatemala City. 



The deciding argument for this site 



