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COMAYAGUA |
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 The conquistadors' first city and the capital of Honduras until
independence, faded COMAYAGUA lies just 85km north of its rival,
Tegucigalpa, at the northeast end of the fertile Comayagua valley. Today,
the main reason to visit is the architectural legacy of the colonial
period, in particular the dramatic cathedral overlooking the Parque
Central. The first Spanish settlement was established here on December
8, 1537, and destroyed soon afterwards during the Lempira rebellion.
Swiftly rebuilt in 1539, Santa María de Comayagua, as it was first known,
rapidly became wealthy thanks to the discovery of silver in the vicinity.
King Felipe II of Spain bestowed on Comayagua the title of city in
December 1557, and in 1573 it became the administrative centre for the
whole of Honduras. Following independence, however, the city's fortunes
began to decline, particularly after Tegucigalpa was designated
alternate capital of the new republic in 1824, an ignominy compounded by
the city's sacking and burning at the hands of Guatemalan forces during
the civil war in 1827. Backwater status was sealed conclusively in 1880,
when President Soto permanently transferred the capital to Tegucigalpa,
supposedly because Comayagua was too conservative for his liking.
Although Comayagua is today a relatively rich and important provincial
centre, its rivalry with Tegucigalpa has barely wavered over the
centuries.
The Town
Most sights of interest are within a few blocks of the large Parque
Central , which is graced by a pretty tiled bandstand, a fountain and a
smattering of resident shoeshine boys. Few of the city streets are
numbered, but the centre is...
Most sights of interest are within a few blocks of the large Parque
Central , which is graced by a pretty tiled bandstand, a fountain and a
smattering of resident shoeshine boys. Few of the city streets are
numbered, but the centre is relatively compact and orientation
straightforward. On the southeast corner of the Parque is the Cathedral
, whose intricate facade consists of tiers of niches containing statues
of the saints. More properly known as the Iglesia de la Inmaculada
Concepción , the cathedral is home to the twelfth-century Reloj Arabe,
one of the oldest clocks in the world. Formerly housed in the Alhambra
in Granada, Spain, the clock was presented to the city by King Felipe II
in 1582 and now resides in the cathedral's bell tower, which was built
between 1580 and 1708 and is considered one of the outstanding examples
of colonial Baroque architecture in Central America. The highlight
amongst a wealth of Baroque artwork inside the church is the elaborately
carved seventeenth-century Retablo del Rosario altarpiece; go early if
you want to see it, as the doors are normally locked from noon to 2pm
and in the evenings. Across the road to the south of the cathedral, the
Museo Colonial (Mon-Sat 9.30-11.30am & 2-5pm, Sun 10am-noon & 2-5pm;
US$0.75), housed in the Casa Cural, holds an exhibition of religious art,
statues, chalices and documents from the city's churches. The building
was originally constructed for Comayagua's university , the first to be
established in Central America, in 1678.
Two blocks north of the Parque Central, on the Plaza San Francisco, the
Museo Arqueológico occupies a newly renovated single-storey building
that used to be the government palace (Tues-Sun 8.30am-4pm; US$1.30).
The small but interesting range of exhibits include a pre-Columbian
Lenca stela, polychrome ceramics and some terrific jade jewellery;
there's also a little café. On the same plaza is one of the city's
oldest churches, Iglesia de San Francisco , originally established by
Franciscan monks in 1574 but rebuilt following an earthquake in 1809.
Four blocks south from the Parque Central is another colonial church,
the Iglesia de la Merced . Built between 1550 and 1558, though its
facade dates back only to the early eighteenth century, this was the
city's original cathedral, holding the Reloj Arabe until 1715, when the
new cathedral was consecrated. Several blocks further south, the Iglesia
de San Sebastián , completed in 1585, was built specifically for
indigenous worshippers.
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