El Salvador - The Rainbow Church

August 7

Hello everyone!

To say that El Salvador has changed in the last few years would be a massive understatement. One area that has seen significant change is its old town: Centro Historico.

Inside the Iglesia El Rosario

Inside the Iglesia El Rosario

I’ve been here a few times before, both for work…

National Theatre - we got to go inside on a school trip

My Grade 5 kids being attacked by
pigeons outside the BINAES library

…and for fun. Well, you may not find running a half-marathon fun, but I do. 

In front of the National Palace after a walking tour in 2022

Running a downtown half marathon in 2025

It’s not somewhere I would have been advised to go before arriving back in 2022. It was a place known for robberies and worse. 

5,782 murders occurred in 2016, when San Salvador and
El Salvador were dubbed the 'Murder Capital of the World'

For much-publicised reasons, it’s changed now. For example, you can rent bikes near the main square and cycle around the main blocks of Centro Historico. More establishments have opened up. As a result, more people come downtown, in the east of the city, to visit its sights.

Bike rental in front of San Salvador Cathedral

More places have opened since the State of Exception in 2022

As mentioned, I’ve seen most of Centro’s main sights before. The one that I hadn’t been into before was a small church called Iglesia El Rosario. Just look at it. Wow.

The church is 90 metres long

It was declared a ‘Historic Site’ in 1972

Sorry, you need to see the inside for the wow factor. The outside seems a bit…brutalist. No Soviet influence in the making of this church, though it was built in the 1960s. 

The original Rosary church, built in the early 20th Century, was made of wood and sheeting

The Virgin of the Rosary is the patroness of the country

There were places of worship here before this church was finished in 1971. Records suggest that there has been a church on this site since 1545, and it was where the first Cathedral was until an earthquake destroyed it in 1873.

This church is 23 metres high

This is the current Cathedral

What makes this church special is its windows. These create a rainbow effect inside the building from the stained glass, which is layered within each Brutalist floor. 

Pope John XXIII himself came from Rome

to oversee part of the construction

The light shines through the eastern windows in the morning and western windows in the afternoon

A famous Salvadorean priest and politician, Padre Delgado, is buried here, and there is also the customary homage to the country’s saint, Oscar Romero.

Statues outside the church

Romero was made a saint in 2018

You’d never guess it from the outside that the inside of this building can be so beguiling and beautiful. Centro Historico’s reputation is improving but it still isn’t a top spot for a visitor to the country. Scratching beneath the surface can throw up some gems that can be any colour of the rainbow.

Lonely Planet describes this church as 'radically beautiful'

Iglesia El Rosario

Somewhere over the rainbow...

Love you all,

Matt