Chamorro capital — Spanish plazas, WWII liberation, and Wednesday night market
Hagåtña (formerly Agaña) is the capital of Guam — a US territory in Micronesia and the largest island in the Mariana Islands. The small historic core around Plaza de España retains Spanish colonial monuments from 400 years of Spanish rule, while the Chamorro Village Night Market every Wednesday evening is a window into the living culture of the island's indigenous people: red rice, kelaguen (citrus-cured meat), and latiya cake sold alongside traditional weaving.
Guam was home to the Chamorro people for at least 3,500 years, building massive latte stone structures (stone pillars topped with caps) whose purpose remains debated. Spain colonised Guam in 1668 and held it until 1898, when the US took it as part of the Spanish-American War settlement. Japan occupied Guam from 1941 to 1944; the US liberation in August 1944 is still commemorated annually with Liberation Day, and the battlefields around Hagåtña are among the Pacific's most intact WWII sites.