Honduras's colonial capital — a cathedral with a 1,000-year-old Moorish clock, cobblestone streets, and Semana Santa processions that rival Antigua
Comayagua was the capital of Honduras for 300 years before Tegucigalpa took over in 1880 — a perfectly preserved Spanish colonial city in the highland valley that was once the most important administrative centre in Central America. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception houses the oldest operating clock in the Americas, a Moorish timepiece gifted by King Philip II of Spain in 1636 — originally built for the Alhambra in Granada in the 11th century. Comayagua's Semana Santa (Holy Week) processions are the most elaborate in Honduras: carved wooden floats weighing several tonnes are carried…
Comayagua was founded in 1537 by the Spanish conquistador Alonso de Cáceres, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central America. It was the seat of the colonial government of Honduras — first under the Captaincy General of Guatemala, then as capital of the independent Republic of Honduras from 1821 to 1880. The decision to move the capital to Tegucigalpa was made by President Marco Aurelio Soto during a political dispute that reflected the shift in economic power from the colonial-era silver mines around Comayagua to the emerging mining districts near Tegucigalpa.