Fachada del Templo de Ciudad Vieja, Sacatepéquez

Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala ("St. James of the Knights of Guatemala") was the name given to the capital city of the Spanish colonial

Captaincy General of Guatemala The Captaincy General of Guatemala ( es, Capitanía General de Guatemala), also known as the Kingdom of Guatemala ( es, Reino de Guatemala), was an administrative division of the Spanish Empire, under the viceroyalty of New Spain in Central A ...

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

History

;Quauhtemallan — Guatemala :The name was first associated with the Kaqchikel

Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...

capital

Iximche Iximcheʼ () (or Iximché using Spanish orthography) is a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site in the western highlands of Guatemala. Iximche was the capital of the Late Postclassic Kaqchikel Maya kingdom from 1470 until its abandon ...

, adopted as the Spanish capital soon after the

Spanish conquest of Guatemala In a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonisers gradually incorporated the territory that became the modern country of Guatemala into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. Before the conquest, this te ...

began in July 1524. The Kaqchikel capital was called Guatemala by the Spanish, with its origin in the

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

word ''Quauhtemallan'', which means "forested land". The Spanish took the name of the city used by their Nahuatl-speaking Mexican allies and applied it to the new Spanish city and, by extension, to the

. From this comes the contemporary name of the country,

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

. The day of the city's foundation was 25 July, which is the feast day of St. James, hence the full name of the city.Turismo Cultural. ;Almolonga — Ciudad Vieja :After the Kaqchikel rebelled against their former allies, the Spanish refounded the capital as Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala in 1527, in the Almolonga Valley near the

Volcán de Agua Volcán de Agua (also known as Hunahpú by Maya) is a stratovolcano located in the departments of Sacatepéquez and Escuintla in Guatemala. At , Agua Volcano towers more than above the Pacific coastal plain to the south and above the Guatemalan ...

. In 1541 the crater of the volcano collapsed, unleashing a flood upon the new capital, which was once again moved. The Almolonga Valley site is now known as Ciudad Vieja ("Old City").DeGUATE.com ;Panchoy – Antigua Guatemala :In 1543, Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala was once again refounded, this time at Panchoy. The new city survived as the capital of colonial Guatemala through the rest of the 16th century, the 17th century, and most of the 18th century, until it was severely damaged by the 1773 Guatemala earthquake. The capital was once again moved in 1775, although this time it was given the name Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción ("New Guatemala of the Assumption"), the present day national capital (commonly called

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, nest ...

). The former capital at Panchoy has now become known as

Antigua Guatemala Antigua Guatemala (), commonly known as Antigua or La Antigua, is a city in the central highlands of Guatemala. The city was the capital of the Captaincy General of Guatemala from 1543 through 1773, with much of its Baroque-influenced architec ...

("Old Guatemala").

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Further reading