Santa Cruz del Quiché

Santa Cruz del Quiché is a ceety in Guatemala. It serves as the caipital o El Quiché depairtment an the municipal seat o Santa Cruz del Quiché municipality.

The ceety is locatit at , at an elevation o 2,021 m (6,631 feet) abuin sea level. The urban population wis aboot 21,000 fowk in 2003.

History
Santa Cruz del Quiché wis foondit bi Pedro de Alvarado, a companion an seicont in-command o conquistador Hernán Cortés, efter he burned doun the nearbi Maya caipital ceety o Q'umarkaj (or Utatlán, in the Nahuatl leid).  The auldest biggins, includin a lairge cathedral an clock touer in the central plaza, wur constructit oot o the stanes o the Q'umarkaj ruins bi the Dominicans.  Some think it likely that it wis in Santa Cruz where a group o anonymous K'iche' nobles o the Nim Ch'okoj class transcribit the Popol Vuh, the sacred text o the Maya.

In Santa Cruz, the umwhile rulers o Q'umarkaj wur reducit tae the status o peasant. As the livin conditions wur so pitiful in the ceety, the toun o Chichicastenango, aboot 20 mile tae the sooth o Santa Cruz, began tae swell wi the immigration o displacit Mayas an suin passed up Santa Cruz in baith size an importance.

Santa Cruz del Quiché haes an airport.

References

Freemit airtins
Santa Cruz del Quiché - Sistema de Información Municipal
INE - XI Censo Nacional de Poblacion y VI de Habitación (Censo 2002)  

Category:Municipalities o the Quiché Depairtment
Category:Populatit places in the Quiché Depairtment
Category:Populatit places established in the 16t century