[4] Jorge de Alvarado founded the second capital here for the Captaincy General of Guatemala in 1527; but, according to historian Domingo Juarros, there was already discrepancy on the exact location of the original placement of Ciudad Vieja back in 1818.

[On the other hand, there is a group that says] that the Spaniards found the city on top of King's Sinacam old court, or Guatemala de los Indios, located in the actual Tzacualpa valley.

[3] Either way, the Cabildo decided a permanent location for the city on the edge of the plain at the foot of the south-west slope of the Volcán de Agua; during the following year this new Santiago was declared to be the capital of the province, and began rapidly to rise in importance.

[5] Juarros described that the settlement could not develop because fourteen years after its foundation it was ruined by a "formidable landslide that came down Volcán de Agua on 11 September 1541; the mudslide brought along heavy rocks that destroyed part of the buildings and damaged the rest".

"[9] Guatemalan writer and historian José Milla y Vidaurre wrote his novel La hija del Adelantado using historical elements from the months leading to the destruction of Ciudad Vieja.