Hagåtña

Hagåtña is the capital of Guam, a United States territory in the western Pacific, and was the island's main population center from the arrival of Spanish missionaries in 1668 through the mid 20th century. American naval bombardment heavily damaged the city during the 1944 liberation of Guam, and the Navy's postwar rebuilding cut new straight streets through existing land parcels, fragmenting ownership in ways that have hindered redevelopment ever since. Its population has fallen to under a thousand residents, making it one of the smallest of Guam's 19 villages, but it remains the seat of the island's legislature and governor and a historic commercial district.