As befits a four hundred year old Spanish Colonial city, the historical aspects have been kept intact. In 1979 the city was designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO and every effort is made to keep the image and original design as original as possible. There’s a McDonalds, a Burger King and a Subway franchise but there are no golden arches: each is ensconced in a colonial-era building, with only a small discreet sign on the exterior.
The architectural style called ‘mudejar’ was borrowed from the Moors, who conquered and occupied Spain for almost a thousand years. It was a logical response to a hot climate: the walls extend to the sidewalks and the interiors are sheltered under an overhanging roof. In the middle of the open four-sided living area there’s a space for lawn or plants and there’s usually a graceful circular fountain that splashes a constant stream of cooling water. Thus the Arabs and later the Spanish could be sheltered from the sun and also have no exposure to the streets outside aside from a heavy wooden door with a peephole. On that door would be and still are, brass decorations: some function and some not. Some had to be heavy, so as to notify the inhabitants that someone was at the door. Electric door bells as we know them today are only a recent nod to the arrival of the twenty first century.
Fanciful reproductions of lion heads, brass roundels and other animal figures are still seen, adorning most doors in Antigua. There are a few stores specializing in brass and other decorative door doodads, and there’s at least one local foundry keeping the tradition alive. Some of the brass fittings are said to have been designed to keep elephants away: the Moors of North Africa were accustomed to using elephants in their military campaigns and to protect the exterior doors from being damaged by same, spiked brass fittings were employed.
The fount of this information is a ‘usually reliable source’, and given to reading history: however, a small caveat should be noted, since he was also the source for the tale of the “last Honduran gunfighter” story, supposed buried in Antigua’s cemetery and found dead at the table after a marathon drinking bout on a New Year’s Eve, many years ago. After several fruitless journeys to the cemetery, it was decided that his niche in the concrete condo-style catacombs had been repossessed and his earthly remains scattered elsewhere. No one claimed that the eviction process in Antigua was painless, especially for deadbeats.