Santa Teresa De Jesus Monastery and Temple Courtyard in Old City Antigua Guatemala, a Unesco World Heritage Site

The license to found a Monastery for the Order of Carmelitas Descalzas was granted on June 22, 1675. The three founding nuns arrived to the city on May 25, 1677, from Lima, Peru. The design and construction of the building, began in 1683 and concluded in 1687, it is attributed to the Architect Major Joseph de Porres. During the eighteen century the earthquakes caused damage to the monument, reason why it was object of reparation; after being abandoned it was occupied by poor families and from the second half of the nineteenth century the upper floor of the monastery was enabled as a courtyard to dry coffee beans Towards the 1940s, the jail of men who occupied the Palace of the City was transferred to this monastery and remained there until December 2007.