Understand
Now commonly referred to as just Antigua or La Antigua, the city was one of the grand colonial capitals of the Spanish Empire in America from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Under the name Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, it was the original "Guatemala City". A disastrous major earthquake in 1773 destroyed or damaged most of the city, and the Spanish Crown ordered the Capital moved to a new city, what became the modern Guatemala City. In 1776 this old city was ordered abandoned. Not everyone left, but from bustling capital it became a provincial town, filled with the ruins of former glory. It became known as "Antigua Guatemala", meaning "Old Guatemala".
In the 20th century there was increasing appreciation for the large amount of preserved colonial Spanish architecture here, development to host visitors, and the city was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979.
The city's streets are mostly laid out in a rectangular grid aligned with the compass, with the Parque Central as an origin point. North-south roads are avenidas or avenues, numbered from 1st to 8th from east to west. The avenidas are further divided into sur south and norte north. East-west roads are calles or streets, numbered from 1st to 9th from north to south. The calles are further divided into oriente east and poniente west. The street intersection at the north-east corner of the Palace of the Captains-General, i.e. at the south-east corner of Parque Central, is the origin of this division. Avenidas are sur south of 5a Calle, and norte north of it. Calles are oriente east of 4a avenida, and poniente west of it.
Some roads have names that don't follow the avenida/calle numbering scheme, and some roads away from the center don't follow the grid. Most corners do not have signs showing the name of either the street you are on or the one you just came up to. All are cobblestoned and sidewalks are generally not very good.
Addresses are numbered sequentially outwards from the origin point. Even-numbered addresses are on one side of the street and odd numbers are on the other. Street addresses are written with the street or avenue number first, followed by the letter "a" because 1a signifies "primera", 2a is short for "segunda", 3a for "tercera", etc; then "av." for avenida or "Cle" for calle, then "ote" oriente, east, "pte" poniente, west, "sur" south, or "nte" norte, north; then the street address number. For instance:
"5a av. nte #5" is address #5 on 5th Avenue North. The small number shows it is just a little north of the north-south divider, 5a calle.
"3a calle ote #28" is address #28 on 3rd Street East. The relatively large number shows it is some ways east of the east-west divider, 4a Avenida.
It's helpful to memorise that the north and south sides of Parque Central are 4a and 5a calles, and the west and east sides are 5a and 4a avenidas respectively. Parque Central is the reference point for east, west, north and south in street addresses. "5a av. nte #5" is north of Parque Central. "5a ave. sur #5" is south of Parque Central. Essentially, if you understand which way is north of Parque Central, you can find anything in the city.
Inguat Tourist Office, 2a Calle Oriente #11 between Avenidas 3a and 2a, â 7832-3782 [email protected]. M-F 8AM-5PM, Sa Su 9AM-5PM. edit