Crumbling Bell Tower of San Francisco el Grande, Antigua

San Francisco el Grande's bell tower and adjoining walls still bear the damage from the 1773 Santa Marta earthquake, the disaster that drove Spanish colonial authorities to abandon Antigua as the capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala. Franciscan friars had built the original complex starting in 1579, eventually expanding it to include a school, printing press, and infirmary alongside the church. Rather than fully rebuild after the quake, the friars left much of the structure as rubble, and later repairs focused only on portions needed for active worship. A restored section of the church today holds the tomb of Hermano Pedro de San José Betancur, a Franciscan lay brother canonized in 2002. The surrounding ruins, along with the rest of Antigua's colonial center, were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

Taken February 2020