In 1543, when the seat of the Spanish government was relocated from Cuidad Vieja to the newly established capital of Santiago (present day Antigua), the area experienced a significant and predictable increase in population. The City Council thus began allocating large swathes of land to a wide variety of religious factions and missionaries.

By the time two Recollect friars arrived in the city in 1685, there were already plenty of Churches, Chapels, Monasteries, and Convents underway, in varying stages of construction. The City Council was adamant that the area could not support another. Moreover, they were reluctant to continue to grant land to every religious faction that petitioned, in fear that those petitions may never stop. The Recollects, however, were steadfast in their mission of acquiring their place in the New World.

In 1700, the friars received a writ, signed by the crown, ordering that the Recollects be given whatever they needed to establish their convent. One year later, the construction of their Church began, in September 1701, and would continue for more than a decade, as cloisters, refectories, housing, study rooms, and an infirmary were added to the immense compound.

In 1715, the Church was completed and it was inaugurated in May of 1717, however, just a few months later a major earthquake would cause significant structural damage. Almost immediately, reconstructive work began resulting in a Church so grand in scale, it was considered one of the largest in the new capital.

But, as so many of these stories end, the vicissitudes of nature, in this case, earthquakes, and the devastation they cause, did not spare La Recolección. In 1773, the seismic event that forced the moving of the capital to Guatemala City, also caused this Church and Convent to be abandoned, later to be picked over for resources for other projects. However, even in its current state, you can pass among its walls, and walk along its paths, and still grasp a sense of its former grandeur.