El Salvador - Downtown’s Beautiful Buildings

January 24

Hello everyone!

As part of our learning about being historians, my minions visited the old centre of the city of San Salvador: Centro Historico. It was a good opportunity for them to learn about their home city and its past. It was a good opportunity for me to visit some of the city’s grand buildings and gain behind-the-scenes access to them.

Teatro Nacional

Embossed symbol in Palacio Nacional

I have visited the area before, on a walking tour in December 2022. That blog focused on the history of the country, from its pre-Hispanic roots to the present day via its colonial period. I didn’t actually spend much time talking about the city itself.

Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador 

Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador who was canonised in 2018

The city was founded in 1525, a year after Pedro de Alvarado started conquering the area now known as El Salvador for the Spanish. The Pipiles people had their major settlement, Cuzcatlan, nearby. The new city lasted…a year. Later attempts by the Spanish stuck, with San Salvador becoming the country’s largest and most important city.

Centro Historico sits on the eastern side of San Salvador

Above the camera there are bullet holes, a
reminder of less safe times in the country

The Spanish built many beautiful buildings, some of which have survived the multitude of volcanic eruptions and tremors. Earthquakes like the one in 1986 significantly rocked the city and its historic centre. Many damaged buildings have been rebuilt or renovated, and Centro Historico itself is currently under significant redevelopment to make it a safer, cleaner and happier place.

The painting of General Barrios, who served as President three times
in a six-year period. The main square of Centro Historico is named after him. 

A recent renovation in Centro Historico is the Jardin Centroamerica

Some of the places we went on our trip are buildings which I have been in before, such as San Salvador Cathedral and BINAES, the city’s new futuristic library. Going with a school has its perks, however; in the latter, we had access to their workshop areas and laboratories connected to robotics and prototyping.

The prototyping lab has cutting edge technology

Different sections of the library are themed - in the prototype lab, they
make initial versions of the final product which may stand next to certain books

Two buildings were new to me. The first was the National Theatre: Teatro Nacional. This theatre opened 107 years ago, in 1917.

Outside the Teatro Nacional

View from one of the booths - on the website, the
maximum ticket price is $10, which seems cheap to me!

The inside is stunning. I don’t know a lot about architectural styles, but the internet tells me that a wide variety are used throughout the building, including Rococo, Romantic and Art Nouveau. Mostly the building has a French Renaissance design.

The hallways are very nice - the main lobby is spectacular
but my pictures of that are full of kids!

Logo of Teatro Nacional

The theatre has 650 seats, all sitting below an incredible fresco. It is called ‘El mestizaje cultural’, which translates as ‘the cultural convergence’. The theatre certainly converges many cultures in both its building and performances, which occur regularly.

Inside of Teatro Nacional

The fresco

The other new building for me, or at least its interior, was the Palacio Nacional: the National Palace. It is no longer a functioning parliament - this is in the Legislative Assembly building about 2 km to the northwest of Centro Historico - but is a national landmark. It has also been used by subsequent leaders, most recently President Nayib Bukele, to address supporters.

View of Palacio Nacional from BINAES

Photo of the palace from my first visit in December 2022 -
you'll notice the sign has shifted to a different part of the square

This version of the palace was built in the early twentieth century, after the previous palace was destroyed by a fire in 1889. To ensure the project finished, a tax was implemented on coffee exports which would go directly to the construction of the palace.

The palace ceased to function as government headquarters in 1974

Photo from Wikipedia of Palacio Nacional
shortly after reconstruction in 1911

After entering the building, you emerge in a courtyard containing five large Norfolk Pine trees. These trees represent the five Central American nations which created a federation in 1823 after declaring independence from Spain two years previously. Well, it did. There are now only four, with one being dug up last year without a reason being offered.

The five nations were Guatemala, El Salvador,
Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica 

The trees are taller than the palace, which is 15 metres tall

There are 104 rooms in the palace. Four of them are particularly special, and are named after their colour. The Red Room, Blue Room, Yellow Room and Pink Room were once the settings for vital state functions, such as the Legislative Assembly and the Supreme Court of Justice. 

The Pink Room housed the Supreme Court of Justice

The Blue Room, which I thought was the
most ornate, was the Legislative Assembly

Most of the rooms have been redecorated but showcase what they would have resembled in a bygone era. 

The Yellow Room hosted the Presidency of the Republic

The Red Room has portraits of the
first six Presidents of El Salvador

Recent renovations of the palace have been somewhat controversial. The ornate tiled flooring has been entirely replaced with marble. Apparently many of these tiles, which have historical and heritage value, were found dumped in a river. 

The strip in the middle is the original

Photo from the linked article showing examples of the floor tiling

El Salvador is motoring towards modernity, after being left behind somewhat due to civil and gang warfare. Ensuring that Centro Historico retains its classical charm will help future generations learn its history so it doesn’t get washed away in the rush of the 21st century.

Robotic arm in BINAES - our future?

The El Salvador flag fluttering above Palacio Nacional

Love you all,

Matt