Items | Antigua Earthquake Baroque Architecture Audio Guided Walking Tour
Antigua Earthquake Baroque Architecture Audio Guided Walking Tour
Antigua Guatemala
Important Information
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Service animals allowed
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Public transportation options are available nearby
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Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
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Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Cancellation policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
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For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
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Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
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If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
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This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.
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Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
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Antigua was built on a fault line, and its colonial builders learned the hard way what stands up and what falls down. Major earthquakes in 1717, 1751, and finally 1773 brought the great churches down one by one, and in between the builders worked out a structural language now called Barroco Antigueno, or Earthquake Baroque.
This self-guided audio walk teaches you to read it across nine stops: the cathedral whose tall slim columns did not survive, the arcade that spreads its load across many small spans, the Santa Catalina Arch and its lesson in compression, La Merced with its two-metre walls and stucco skin, the circular tower of Capuchinas built with no corners for the shaking, and Santa C...
Highlights
From 1 hour and 30 minutes to 3 hours
Offered in English & Spanish
Free Cancellation
Mobile Ticket
From 1 hour and 30 minutes to 3 hours
Offered in English & Spanish
Free Cancellation
Mobile Ticket
What's Included
N/A
Private transportation
Meeting Points
Departure
Antigua Guatemala Central Park
This is a self-guided audio walking tour with no live guide. Begin at the Cathedral on Parque Central, the main plaza at the center of Antigua. Open the Roamer app, start the tour, and walk at your own pace. You can begin at any time of day.
Return
The tour ends at the Iglesia de San Francisco el Grande, at the southeast edge of the historic center. It holds the tomb of Hermano Pedro, the first saint of Central America. From here you are in a walkable district with cafes and a taxi rank just outside for the ride back to the plaza.
Antigua Earthquake Baroque Architecture Audio Guided Walking Tour
Antigua Guatemala
About
Antigua was built on a fault line, and its colonial builders learned the hard way what stands up and what falls down. Major earthquakes in 1717, 1751, and finally 1773 brought the great churches down one by one, and in between the builders worked out a structural language now called Barroco Antigueno, or Earthquake Baroque.
This self-guided audio walk teaches you to read it across nine stops: the cathedral whose tall slim columns did not survive, the arcade that spreads its load across many small spans, the Santa Catalina Arch and its lesson in compression, La Merced with its two-metre walls and stucco skin, the circular tower of Capuchinas built with no corners for the shaking, and Santa C...
Highlights
From 1 hour and 30 minutes to 3 hours
Offered in English & Spanish
Free Cancellation
Mobile Ticket
From 1 hour and 30 minutes to 3 hours
Offered in English & Spanish
Free Cancellation
Mobile Ticket
What's Included
N/A
Private transportation
Meeting Points
Departure
Antigua Guatemala Central Park
This is a self-guided audio walking tour with no live guide. Begin at the Cathedral on Parque Central, the main plaza at the center of Antigua. Open the Roamer app, start the tour, and walk at your own pace. You can begin at any time of day.
Return
The tour ends at the Iglesia de San Francisco el Grande, at the southeast edge of the historic center. It holds the tomb of Hermano Pedro, the first saint of Central America. From here you are in a walkable district with cafes and a taxi rank just outside for the ride back to the plaza.
Itinerary
1
Antigua Guatemala Central Park
The failure specimen. A working parish in front, behind it the roofless cathedral ruins of 1680, its tall slim Mannerist columns toppled in 1773. See the proportions that fell.
2
Palacio de los Capitanes Generales
The arcade that teaches the grammar: many small repeated arches spread the upper floor load, so if one cracks its neighbours carry on. Redundancy over daring, rebuilt low in 1755.
3
Antiguo Colegio de la Compañía de Jesús
The Jesuit church and college of the 1690s, where the young Diego de Porres learned the trade. A style still transitional, and cantera stone in the cloisters you can walk into.
4
El Carmen
The exception. Twenty-four twisting stucco columns crowd one wall, yet the dome and vaults behind fell in 1773. The thin decorated screen outlived the structure it fronted.
5
Arco de Santa Catalina
A pure lesson in compression: a Roman semicircular arch turns the weight of the room above into stability, carried down piers nearly two metres thick. Built 1694, still standing.
6
Iglesia de la Merced
Earthquake Baroque fully resolved: two-metre walls, a low wide profile, and a yellow facade of hand-carved Maya stucco, not stone. The cathedral fell. La Merced did not.
7
Convento de las Capuchinas
Diego de Porres last work (1731 to 1736). Its Torre de Retiro is a round tower of nun cells: a circular plan with no corners for lateral force to catch. The cornerless answer.
8
One cloister, both answers. Short thick columns; on one side the upper arcade held, on the other it fell. Same 1773 quake, ten metres apart. Read success and failure at once.
9
Iglesia de San Francisco El Grande
The material lesson: light, porous cantera volcanic stone under every facade you have read, plus stubby low towers. End here with the literacy to read any front in the city.
