The Church and Central Plaza, Copan Ruinas

Parque Central e Iglesia, Copán Ruinas, originally uploaded by Adalberto.H.Vega.

The Central Plaza in Copan Ruinas, Honduras is going through some radical transformations. Apparently the municipal authorities had finally come to their senses and realized that the Central Plaza in a small town like Copan Ruinas should not have that many ornaments and walls inside.

It is the same situation as any other town in Honduras (or Latin America) that has the typical layout of the Spanish cities, with the church opposite to the government building. The Central Plaza doesn't have any walls or tall edifications inside, because buildings around have even more historical value to be appreciated from the plaza itself.

Although a properly maintained—beautifully adorned Central Plaza contributes to the embellishment of the city, Central Plazas should not be crowded with vision-obstructive elements that impede the view of those historically valuable buildings.

The actual Plaza with all those decorations inside (and an unnecessary wall in the south side) was created by the same architect who designed the Central Plaza in Puerto Cortes, but the difference in that city as compared to Copan —no offense to the Porteños— is that the only pretty element in the city is the Plaza itself. There are no historical buildings around worthy of singular appreciation.

Let's hope the remodeling process won't suffer the same interference as the so—called garden refurbishing.