24. Antigua Guatemala, from History of Disasters to Resilient Future

Disasters have marked the history of Antigua Guatemala since its foundation. Actually, the current location was the third establishment of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala: the cultural, economic, religious, political and educational centre for the entire region during almost three centuries. The capital lasted until the Santa Marta earthquakes in 1773, when it was transferred again and for good to current Guatemala City. However, despite the destruction and partial abandonment of the city in ruins, some inhabitants remained, rebuilt it and started to refer to it as Antigua (Ancient) Guatemala. The regulations on reconstruction preserved the ruins and the city’s sixteenth-century Renaissance grid pattern as signs of identity of Antigua, being included in the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1979. Meanwhile, the action of natural hazards didn’t end in historic times, and the city kept suffering several earthquakes, hurricanes and mudslides. Nowadays, the area is even more vulnerable due to urban growth and tourism development. A new call for attention was launched due to the Volcán de Fuego eruption on 3 June 2018. Tonnes of ash reached Antigua Guatemala, gathering over the historic cobblestoned streets, squares and buildings. The authorities realised the need to integrate cultural heritage into the recovery plan. The Executive Secretariat of the National Coordinating Office for Disaster Reduction (SE-CONRED) (Secretaría Ejecutiva de la Coordinadora Nacional para la Reducción de Desastres) launched an initiative with the support of the World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), to work together with the Ministry of Culture on developing a strategy to integrate disaster risk management (DRM) for cultural heritage. From the international perspective, while there has been significant progress on both disciplines in recent years, in most countries DRM and cultural heritage are not connected, and there is a lack of communication between specialists. This chapter analyses the benefits of integrating cultural heritage into DRM strategies, and vice-versa, developing DRM plans for heritage sites, and the role of international institutions to support this, through the example of Antigua Guatemala in connextion with other international initiatives.