The story
Pascua en Antigua Guatemala in Antigua Guatemala
Antigua Guatemala's Holy Week processions descend from the first Christian procession recorded in the country, held in 1543 in the colonial settlement that became Antigua. Hermandades carry andas bearing images of Christ and the Virgin over elaborate sawdust and flower alfombras built overnight, against the backdrop of a UNESCO World Heritage colonial townscape largely unchanged since the eighteenth century.
Antigua Guatemala's Holy Week draws on a lineage that predates the city itself: the first Christian procession recorded in Guatemala took place on March 10, 1543, in Santiago de los Caballeros, the colonial settlement that later became Antigua after the capital relocated following the 1773 earthquakes.