Town of Chichicastenango

Photo by Roman Bruehwiler.

Town of Chichicastenango is part of the Tentative list of Guatemala in order to qualify for inclusion in the World Heritage List.

The Town of Chichicastenango is a K'iche' Maya cultural centre. It has vernacular architecture as well as buildings from the Spanish and Republican periods. Most notable is the Church of Santo Tomás, which is built on top of a Pre-Columbian temple platform and is still used in Maya rituals.

Map of Town of Chichicastenango

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The coordinates shown for all tentative sites were produced as a community effort. They are not official and may change on inscription.

Community Reviews

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Santiago Lafuente

Guatemala - 05-Jan-24 -

Town of Chichicastenango (T) by Santiago Lafuente

I visited Santo Tomás Chichicastenango for the first time on market day in the summer of 2021 and recently in winter of 2023 on a regular day. I am proudly Guatemalan and I have lived my entire life in this beautiful country, so since I was a child I have heard about Chichicastenango, because it is a cultural and historical milestone among us chapines. It is from there that many of the finest and oldest crafts and embroideries come from, many of which are later sold in the towns of Lake Atitlán and in Antigua Guatemala. This little town also stands out for being the largest indigenous market in America where the 86 cantons (districts) of the area meet to trade every Thursday and Saturday, many of these made up of families of different Mayan ethnic groups.

On both occasions I visited the colonial church of Santo Tomás and its convent, a monumental complex that dates back to 1540 and that according to history was built on top of the ruins of a temple in what was the ancient city of Chuwilá, headquarters of the Kaqchiquel court. It was inside the Convent that Fray Francisco Ximénez found a single copy of the Popol Vuh. The church of El Calvario, which is located on the other side of the market square, was also built on top of Mayan ruins and faces the other church, being a unique example of spanish colonial urbanism influenced by the maya. Both churches have altars and old baroque colonial imagery that have been darkened by the smoke of the candles, generating a very mystical atmosphere resulting from religious syncretism or Sincretismo Religioso, in this case evidenced by the merge of catholic and mayan beliefs.

The market square is framed to the northeast and southwest by the portals of the indigenous mayor's office and the archeology museum, both built during the republican era in Guatemala (1821 - 1922). The town cemetery is a very colorful and mystical space, it has a chapel and several tombs from different periods. In the town, vernacular architecture is no longer dominant, but the space of the plaza and the churches is relatively well preserved, although it is worth mentioning that construction regulations are urgently needed to prevent the colonial environment from being overshadowed.

In my opinion, the area to be nominated in a candidacy would be the main square with its churches and portals because, in terms of OUV, they do meet criteria V and VI, even so, Chichicastenango as nominated is not a strong nomination. The starting point should be from the churches and places where the unique cultural exchange of Sincretismo Religioso in Guatemala is lived and has been experienced, as exemplified in the churches of San Andrés Xecul, Santiago Atitlán, Panajachel, Rabinal and Cubulco to name a few. In this way, a stronger and more transcendental candidacy could be generated that at the same time could help to merge the candidacies of the Franciscan and Dominican Evangelization Route with that of The Town of Chichicastenango.

On the other hand, Guatemala could register the customs and traditions of Chichicastenango as Intangible Heritage of Humanity since they certainly meet exceptional values. Their way of making markets, the cofradías or brotherhoods, the rituals, crafts and other aspects are still alive in this part of the country.


Zoë Sheng

Chinese-Canadian - 18-Feb-20 -

Town of Chichicastenango (T) by Zoë Sheng

Highly popular, highly recommended, highly religious (bleh) but I didn't like it very much, what went wrong?

For one when you go you need to go on a market day, Thursday and Sunday. On any other day you will find this place on par with any generic town in Guatemala. The location is nice and the drive was good but most viewpoints where towards the lake and volcanoes.

Alright so market day is interesting to stroll through the markets but isn't that similar to the market in Antigua? Yes, for sure, so I don't see how it was worth it coming for the market day, maybe it used to be more interesting but vendors selling cloths and trinkets are not special at all. The churches were closed and don't strike me as unique.


Dennis Nicklaus

11-Jun-19 -

Town of Chichicastenango (T) by Dennis Nicklaus

Chichicastenango was a fascinating small city to visit. You don't come for nature's beauty, ancient stone artifacts, or grand palaces, but for its unique living culture.  The people and their culture descend from the ancient Maya, and  that heritage still infuses everyday life.  The evolution of culture is on evident display, a mix of the modern and the ancestral. Sometimes in easily visible things like the traditional clothing, sometimes in many more subtle ways, like the cartoonish mask of a colonial Spaniard used in a local folk dance. The ancient religious practices mix unabashedly with Catholicism.  The pretty colonial church on the plaza mayor had the most incense-saturated atmosphere I have ever been in. We were invited to accompany a local shaman into the woods to observe some religious ritual, an experience that was amazing at the time (and in hindsight, maybe a little scary).   The central open-air market is an amazing place to check out the local foodstuffs, as well as notice the colorful fabrics and their weave patterns representing individual villages.

 

Our hotel was also a unique experience. No locks on the door, but we were assigned one man who was responsible for our room and making sure it was secured. No central heat -- if the cool mountain air was too cold, you had your guy build a fire in the fireplace.

 

I think Chichi definitely has OUV, but it is mostly of the intangible type that is harder to preserve.

We visited Chichi in 1988, during a relatively peaceful pause from the political unrest and violence that had wracked Guatemala years prior. So I must apologize if my review is a tad out-of-date, but it was such an unforgettable place!


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