San Francisco (Antigua Guatemala)
The former monastery church of San Francisco el Grande in Antigua , the old capital of Guatemala , was the main Franciscan church in Central America .
history
The Franciscan church, which was built with brick at the core and then plastered or stuccoed, was shortly after the move from the second capital of Guatemala, the Ciudad Vieja (actually La Muy Noble y Leal Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros , which was destroyed by a mudslide from the Agua volcano) de Goathemala ), founded in Antigua in 1543. But here, too, the church and monastery were not spared natural disasters (earthquakes in 1565 and 1689), and so the monastery buildings had to be repeatedly repaired and, in some cases, rebuilt. The basic substance of today's church construction dates back to around 1700; However, it was abandoned after repeated destruction by the earthquakes of 1717, 1751 and finally 1773. Only after extensive repair work, the complete reconstruction of the reinforced concrete vaults and the return of some brothers in the 1960s, the building was opened again for church services.
architecture
As with many churches in Antigua, after the severe earthquake of 1773, the facade of the church - flanked by two mighty towers - remained halfway intact - its distinctive features are a Hanbsburg double- headed eagle above the central portal as well as four pairs of double columns placed one above the other , which also surround an imaginary inner axis are rotated (so-called Solomonic columns ). Statues of Franciscan martyrs and saints are located in the niches in between. The gable is more recent. While only ruins remain of the right tower, the left shows the massive, compact view typical of Antigua, in which a richly decorated bell storey rests on a basement floor without decorations, which possibly ended in a dome. The single nave nave of the church is vaulted; A reconstructed dome , illuminated by four windows, rises above the crossing , the pendentives of which show portraits of the four evangelists .
Furnishing
The nave and transept house several remarkable altarpieces , which were mostly brought there from other churches, as their own altars were destroyed in the earthquake of 1773 or were transferred a few years later to the newly built monastery church in Guatemala City .
In a chapel on the left arm of the transept is the burial place of the Franciscan Pedro Betancourt (1626–1667), who is commonly known as "Hermano Pedro" (Brother Pedro), which is decorated with a multitude of votive pictures and tablets . During his lifetime he stood up for the poor and sick of the city, which, according to tradition, even went so far that he licked their wounds like a dog, which was said to be beneficial for healing. Eventually, however, the city's residents raised money for the San Pedro Hospital, which still exists. Pope John Paul II canonized Brother Pedro in 2002.
literature
- Wolfgang Gockel : Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. Mayan cities and colonial architecture in Central America. DuMont, Cologne 1999, pp. 139f, ISBN 3-7701-4732-4 .
Web links
Coordinates: 14 ° 33 ′ 13 ″ N , 90 ° 43 ′ 47 ″ W.