Audioguides Hagta

Hagatna -- the name restored in 1998 after decades of being called Agana by American administrators -- is the capital of Guam and technically the westernmost capital city of the United States, perched in the western Pacific 13 time zones from Washington. With fewer than a thousand permanent residents, it is also one of the smallest, a fact that makes its role as a center of power and history all the more quietly remarkable.

The city carries centuries in a compact space.

The Plaza de Espana holds the crumbling ruins of the Spanish Governor's Palace, where colonial administration ran from 1668 until the United States took the island from Spain in 1898. Latte stones -- the ancient mushroom-shaped limestone pillars that the indigenous Chamorro people used as building foundations -- stand in a small park near the waterfront, reminders of a civilization that predates European contact by several thousand years. The Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, rebuilt after being destroyed in World War II, is the first church built on Guam and still holds the December 8 procession honoring Santa Marian Kamalen.