The fire occurred Wednesday night, and Comayagua Mayor Carlos Miranda said that “the loss is irreversible because we are talking of great part of the history.”

Located in central Honduras, Comayagua was established in 1537. It was the first capital of Honduras till 1880 when it was replaced by Tegucigalpa. The city has been regarded as the country’s religious, cultural and historical treasure.

The fire destroyed the Episcopal Palace built in 1775, the country’s first university called the Tridentino College, the Del Carmen chapel, the Ecclesiastic Colonial Museum and the tool used by the bishop from Comayagua’s bishopric.

Some valuable documents, such as the marriage certificate of Central American hero Francisco Morazan, were also lost in the disaster.

The cause of the fire was likely to be an electrical short-circuit, said fire-fighters.