Place · city

Ciudad Vieja

Ciudad Vieja is a town in the Almolonga valley of Guatemala, the site of the second Spanish capital, Santiago de los Caballeros, founded there in 1527. On the night of 10–11 September 1541 a flood of water and mud from the Volcán de Agua destroyed the city, killing the governor Beatriz de la Cueva. The capital was then moved to the nearby Panchoy valley, today Antigua Guatemala.

Ciudad Vieja
Image: Rene Hernandez · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Captaincy General of Guatemala

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Ciudad Vieja. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ciudad-vieja
MLA
“Ciudad Vieja.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ciudad-vieja. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Ciudad Vieja.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ciudad-vieja.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Ciudad Vieja’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ciudad-vieja (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻