San Salvador
This article is about the capital of El Salvador. For San Salvador Island and other places that share the name, see San Salvador (disambiguation).San Salvador (coordinates ) is the
capital of
El Salvador.
The origins of the city can be traced to before the Spanish Conquest. It is near the present location of San Salvador that the
Pipil tribes, descendants of the
Aztecs in
Mexico, established their capital, Cuscatlán. Not very much is known about this city, since it was abandoned by its inhabitants in an effort to avoid Spanish rule.
Although the city was founded in the 16th century, it was rebuilt and changed location twice afterwards. Originally founded in what is now the colonial town of
Suchitoto, north of the present-day city, it was moved to the Valle de Las Hamacas (literally Valley of the Hammocks due to the intense seismic activity that characterizes it), which boasted more space and more fertile land, thanks to the pristine Acelhuate River (sadly, it is now extremely polluted). As the population of the country remained relatively small up until the early 20th century, the city grew slowly. It became somewhat of a tourist attraction during the early 20th century as it was considered a beautiful city: with a population of approximately 30,000 it was small, spacious, and clean.
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View of downtown San Salvador in the early 1990s, with an unfinished National Cathedral |
Today, San Salvador is a modern city and is the second biggest city in
Central America. The city proper has a population of about half a million, and covers an area of approximately 514 square kilometers. The explosive growth during and after the war created a metropolitan area (the AMSS, Area Metropolitana de San Salvador) that is administered as a whole. The AMSS covers an area of approximately 610 square kilometers and has a population of about 2.1 million.
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New Residential Buildings in Antiguo Cuscatlán and San Salvador |
The
Pan-American Highway runs through the city, connecting it with other urban areas in Central America and the United States. San Salvador is also the overall transportation and economic hub of the nation, since it is home to one third of the population and one half of the country's wealth.
The city's modern downtown area has many high-rise buildings, but very few of the historic landmarks remain, due to the earthquakes that have hit the city since its founding in 1525 by Spanish Conquistador
Pedro de Alvarado. Today, the city produces
beer,
tobacco products,
textiles, and
soaps.
|
Colonia Escalón in San Salvador |
The disparity between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' is prevalent in San Salvador. The city's most affluent suburbs are located in the western areas of the city, which include Escalon, San Benito, Maquilishuat, San Francisco and the newly established Santa Elena. Several modern housing estates are continiously springing up in the surrounding areas. A number of upscale shopping centres stocking the latest in international fashions include La Gran Via [
1], Plaza Mundo [
2]Multiplaza [
3], Galerias [
4] and Plaza Merliot [
5].
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Shops and restaurants in La Gran Via, the only Lifestyle center mall in Central America. |
New gated communities such as
Bosques De Lourdes complete with high tech security, parks, bike tracks, fitness clubs, shops and swimming pools are popular with the city's middle class families, attracted to the freedoms comparable to those enjoyed in the suburbs of developed nations.
Whilst San Salvador's more affluent enjoy all the comforts found in any 'first world' nation, including exclusive private clubs, private beaches, and the finest of restaurants, these luxuries remain out of reach for many. Slums and shanty towns grow just as fast as the city itself, as it struggles to accommodate migrants from the countryside in search of work. In the poorer areas such as
Apopa &
Soyapango, gang related violence remains a headache for the authorities.
In the past 15 years El Salvador has experienced a huge rise in gang related crimes, and gangs in general. Some say that this was a result of the deportation of thousands of Salvadorans from the U.S, (mainly California and Texas) in the mid-90s. The gangs that Salvadorans had been involved in the United States began to show up in El Salvador. Today El Salvador experiences some of the highest rates of gang related crimes in the world. In response to this, the government has set up countless programs to try to guide the youth away from gang membership, but so far their efforts have not rendered any quick results.
Pollution remains one of the city's biggest problems. Located in a valley, San Salvador is a perfect pollution trap (though not as bad as Mexico City). Fuelling this, the city struggles with an increasing traffic problem. New highways and arterial roads offer some relief. The city is served by
Comalapa International Airport, which is 45 minutes away from the city center.
San Salvador is home to the world's second largest congregation,
Iglesia Elím Centrál, a
Pentecostal/
Evangelical megachurch with 200,000 members.
San Salvador is a large city whose population is starkly divided between the wealthy and impoverished. The wealthier neighborhoods of Escalón, Ciudad Merliot and San Benito boast luxury shops (the largest malls in Central America, including the largest shopping mall in Central America,
Metrocentro), five-star hotels, tree lined avenues and beautiful, well-guarded mansions. However, most of the other neighborhoods in Apopa and Soyapango, among others, are hot, dusty and overcrowded, and are plagued by skyrocketing crime rates and gang related violence.
 |
San Salvador from space, January 1997 |
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Monumento A el Salvador del Mundo, also called Plaza Las Americas |
While the city is relatively wealthy compared to the rest of the country (per capita GDP - PPP is approximately
USD $10000, compared to a national average of approximately $5100), poverty is one of its major problems.
Approximately 89% of the population are
mestizo (mix of Indigenous & European ancenstry), 9%
European followed by Indigenous & other small ethnic groups including
Chinese & Palestinians who have increasingly played a key economic role in the country's development. Many prominent figures in the political, such as
Shafik Handal &
Antonio Saca (current President), and economical scene are of Palestinian descent.
Historical populations
of San SalvadorThe city has suffered from severe
earthquakes over the years, the most disastrous of which occurred in
1854. Also worthy of mentioning is the 1917 eruption of the San Salvador volcano, which resulted in three major earthquakes and damaged the city so extensively that the government was forced to move the capital to the present-day city of Santa Tecla, then named Nueva San Salvador. The most recent Earthquake, in
2001, resulted in considerable damage, especially in Las Colinas suburb where a landslide destroyed homes and killed many people. During the
1980s, conflicts in El Salvador erupted into a civil war, and many people fled to the city since most of the fighting occurred outside of it (San Salvador itself was not directly affected by the war until the final offensive of
1989).
Landmarks of San Salvador include: |
The new National Cathedral, facing Plaza Barrios in the city centre |
Teatro Nacional de El Salvador, El Salvador's National Theatre
Palacio nacional, The National Palace
Catedral Metropolitana, Metropolitan Catheral
Monumento a
Salvador del Mundo, Monument to the Saviour of the World
Casa Presidencial, the Presidential Mansion
Monumento a La Libertad, Monument to Liberty
*
Municipality of San Salvador City*
San Salvador city tour. El Salvador en Imágenes*
Medical and health information in San Salvador Médicos de El Salvador
