[1] The San Miguel earthquake severely impacted the city of Santiago de los Caballeros; the Royal Palace suffered some damage in rooms and walls.

[1] Diego de Porres, city master building fixed the Palace damage and finished by 1720; although he made some more improvements that lasted until 1736.

An intended for transferring the building's columns was made when the city moved into the Ermita Valley, but it wasn't possible because they were too heavy.

[3] On July 29, 1773, day of Saint Martha of Bethania, a very powerful earthquake hit the city of Santiago de los Caballeros at around 3:00 p.m.[8] One hour later, an even more devastating tremor that lasted for about a minute hit the city again,[9] in the middle of a strong thunderstorm, destroying churches, government office buildings and private homes.

On January 16, 1775, master builder Bernardo Ramirez start pulling out all reusable construction material from the destroyed buildings to move it to the new capital city, because of a legal order to do so.

[11] The city remained relatively abandoned during the 19th century, and as such, the Guatemala archbishop sold what was left of monasteries and churches to regular citizens.

[12] On February 4, 1976, Guatemala was struck again by a powerful earthquake of 7.5 in the Richter scale, which destroyed most of country infrastructure and severely damaged the Palace.