The Town
Most sights of interest are within a few blocks of the large Parque Central , which is graced by a pretty tiled bandstand, a fountain and a smattering of resident shoeshine boys. Few of the city streets are numbered, but the centre is relatively compact and orientation straightforward. On the southeast corner of the Parque is the Cathedral , whose intricate facade consists of tiers of niches containing statues of the saints. More properly known as the Iglesia de la Inmaculada Concepcion , the cathedral is home to the twelfth-century Reloj Arabe, one of the oldest clocks in the world. Formerly housed in the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, the clock was presented to the city by King Felipe II in 1582 and now resides in the cathedral's bell tower, which was built between 1580 and 1708 and is considered one of the outstanding examples of colonial Baroque architecture in Central America. The highlight amongst a wealth of Baroque artwork inside the church is the elaborately carved seventeenth-century Retablo del Rosario altarpiece; go early if you want to see it, as the doors are normally locked from noon to 2pm and in the evenings. Across the road to the south of the cathedral, the Museo Colonial (Mon-Sat 9.30-11.30am & 2-5pm, Sun 10am-noon & 2-5pm; US$0.75), housed in the Casa Cural, holds an exhibition of religious art, statues, chalices and documents from the city's churches. The building was originally constructed for Comayagua's university , the first to be established in Central America, in 1678. Two blocks north of the Parque Central, on the Plaza San Francisco, the Museo Arqueologico occupies a newly renovated single-storey building that used to be the government palace (Tues-Sun 8.30am-4pm; US$1.30). The small but interesting range of exhibits include a pre-Columbian Lenca stela, polychrome ceramics and some terrific jade jewellery; there's also a little cafe. On the same plaza is one of the city's oldest churches, Iglesia de San Francisco , originally established by Franciscan monks in 1574 but rebuilt following an earthquake in 1809. Four blocks south from the Parque Central is another colonial church, the Iglesia de la Merced . Built between 1550 and 1558, though its facade dates back only to the early eighteenth century, this was the city's original cathedral, holding the Reloj Arabe until 1715, when the new cathedral was consecrated. Several blocks further south, the Iglesia de San Sebastian , completed in 1585, was built specifically for indigenous worshippers.
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