The History of the Posada Area
The Map of the Posada Area

"Santa Ana Church"

In use today, Santa Ana is a parish for a lively neighborhood. The hermandad(brotherhood) participates with a procession during Lent and the neighbors are active with other traditional celebrations. Santa Ana’s Day is celebrated on July 25th.

Historian J.Joaquín Pardo reports that there was a small chapel servicing the southeast of town before 1541 and, at that time, it was elevated to a hermitage. "If this is true, Santa Ana is the oldest church founded in the Valley of Panchoy". In 1690, it was described as being a beautiful little church located in a neghborhood inhabited by forty Europeanized Kaqchikel families. Forty years later, taxes were collected from the local inhabitants for rebuilding the church. It has an ornate baroque façade, posibly last rebuilt after the 1751 quakes.

In 1917 and 1928 the church suffered severe damages and required considerable repair which was completed in 1929. A more extensive renovation was completed in March 1965, with funds provided by Matilde Geddings Gray. Restoration efforts took place again after the 1976 quake when, in the early 1980s the Franciscans received funds to repair the roof.
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Santa Ana Façade
Santa Ana's Sawdust Carpets

"Santa Cruz Hermitage"

This elaborate façade provides an impressive background for the cultural festivals including the Paiz Cultural Festival sponsored every other February by Fundación Paiz.A small amphitheater was constructed in front of the church in 1969.Originally founded under the administration of wealthy Dominicans, Santa Cruz reatins one of the most elegant façades in Santiago.

Built on the southeast border of the capital in 1662, it became the parish church for a neighborhood of almost thirty Spanish-speaking Kaqchikel families. After destruction of the first structure during the 1717 quake, a number of the more prosperous Kaqchikel families received permission from the City Council to rebuild. The new structure was first used for services in 1731 but was not fully completed until 1746 when the city Council was again petitioned for construction funds. Partially damaged by the 1751 and 1773 quakes, the ornate façade remains almost intact. The church interior is less profuse in decoration but a careful examination of some of the windows and nave reveals sporadic concentrations of excellent stucco detail.

 
A small amphitheater was constructed in front of the church in 1969.

"Santa Isabel Hermitage"

The isolated ruins of Santa Isabel are closed to public.The colonial neighborhood of Santa Isabel was composed of soap-makers. It was under the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Monastery until 1673. By 1690 there were some 210 Indian Catholics who attended the hermitage, suggesting that a fair-sized structure must have existed. There is little information about construction or reconstruction for the hermitage, although art historians have dated it at around the second quarter of the 18th century.
Santa Isabel Hermitage
All that remains today is the main façade, and parts of a wall that may have been part of the priest’s house. The façade is one of the most modest in Santiago and appears to have been made by stone masons rather than architects. The area in front of the ruins, now covered with a hotel, was once the plaza for the neghborhood.

"El Calvario: Stations of the Cross and El Calvario Church"

El Calvario Church is open to the public for services and houses an impressive, although decaying, collection of colonial art. The Stations of the Cross only open for religious festivities today, particulary during Lent.

Beginning at San Francisco Church, the Stations of the Cross were originally determined by measuring the one thousand three hundred and twenty-two steps that Jesus took on the way to crucifixion. Wooden crosses initially represented the stations: these eventually evolved into elaborate chapels were erected at every station in 1691. The last stations are found inside the gate of El Calvario.

 
The first church and gate were built in 1618-19 but didnot survive the 1717 quakes. Immediately afterwards, building started again, and the gate and church which stand now were completed three years later.

The stone cross in front of the gate has the date 1688 inscribed on its base. It is likely that it replaced a wooden one which was erected in 1618 and designated the site where the church was to be built.

One of the most beautiful fountains from colonial Guatemala is located in the alameda and was build in 1679 with approximately three thousand pesos donated by a member of the City Council. Its massive pedestal and bowl are ornately decorated with stone relief images of angels and flowers.

The Stations of the Croos and church were used by the Franciscans and were used continually during Good Friday celebrations until 1773. The chapels were partially restored in 1942 for use during celebrations for Antigua’s four hundredth anniversary. Efforts to restore them again are being undertaken by the Fundación para la Conservación de La Antigua Guatemala.

"Los Remedios Parish"

Visible from the Alameda de El Calvario, today’s ruins of Los Remedios were a parish in colonial times.

Shortly after Santiago was founded, a small thatched structure was built alongside the Pensativo River. This was the first hermitage of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios.A formal tile-roofed building was later built and in 1587 a royal decree granted the hermitage financial help. Work progressed slowly as a movement began to raise the status of the hermitage to a parish church in 1594. These efforts took some fifty years to become reality due the changes in political and ecclesiastical administration, and the church slowly fell into states of calamity.

Historian Francisco Antonio Fuentes y Guzmán was granted a license to collect alms for rebuilding in 1679, and the church was completed eight years afterwards. Is suffered damages in 1717 and 1751, and in 1762 was buried under eight feed of mud when the Pensativo River flooded the area. The church was also damaged in 1773, leaving only the façade of Los Remedios is characteristic of the early 17th century and it is most likely that the façade was not altered after 1641. An unusually elongated church plan contains a choir bay behind the façade, a main nave and a chapel."

Selected References:

Bell, Elizabeth, February 1999, "Antigua Guatemala: the City and its Heritage: Guatemala, Impresos Industriales, 82,115-116,116-119,124,125-126 ps..

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