DAY 46d
Week 7
ANTIGUA GUATEMALA ~ Convento de la Compañía de Jesús (Sacatepéquez, GTM)
Monday April 29th, 2019
TODAYS MILEAGE – 72 miles / 116 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 19,665 miles / 31,648 kilometres
The Convento de la Compañía de Jesús was built between 1690 and 1698, housed a maximum of 13 Jesuit priest at any given time and was the San Lucas School of the Society of Jesus, until the Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish colonies in 1767.
By 1865, the building was functioning as a vapor activated thread mill, but it was not profitable due to a lack of expert technicians and raw material. In 1884 City Hall made an announcement that it intended to transform the old Society of Jesus buildings into a market, in spite of the strong opposition from the neighbours that already had small shops on the plaza. It wasn't until 1912 that a market was placed in the complex.
In 1979 it was included among the monuments that were declared "Patrimony of Humanity" by UNESCO and hosted a Guatemalan handcraft product market until 1992, when the International Cooperation Agency for Development from Spain committed to restore the school building in exchange of being able to use it to create an international educational centre - Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española en La Antigua Guatemala (Training Centre for Spanish Cooperation in La Antigua Guatemala).
Select Camera Icon To Start Slideshow