College of the Company of Jesus, Jesuit school in Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala.
The Colegio de la Compañía de Jesús is a restored colonial complex of three cloisters and a church, completed in 1728 on land donated in 1611 by descendants of chronicler Bernal Díaz del Castillo, some 300 metres from the cathedral. Today it houses the Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española, with a public library and the Caféce in the former convent's orchard courtyard.
The building was founded in 1608 as the Jesuits expanded their educational mission in Guatemala. After 1767, when the Spanish Crown removed the order from its territories, the building passed to other institutions.
The college taught reading, writing and Latin grammar to the elite of Santiago, including the chronicler Francisco Antonio Fuentes y Guzmán, Pedro de Betancourt and Rafael Landívar. Since 2011 the Patio de la Huerta has housed Caféce, a café combining Guatemalan and Spanish food with cultural events.
The former college now houses the Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española, with the Bibliotecace documentation centre on social sciences and development cooperation open since 1999. The Caféce, serving Guatemalan and Spanish food, has operated since late 2011 in the Patio de la Huerta of the old convent. The church atrium facing the college hosts poetry readings, theatre, music and film screenings.
Original wall paintings and decorative details from the 17th century are still visible in some rooms and corridors. These small artistic touches reveal how skilled the craftspeople were and how much care went into finishing the spaces.
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