Antiguo Cuscatlán

According to Pipil texts Antiguo Cuscatlán was founded as Cuzcatlan (meaning "place of jewels" in Nahuatl) in 1054 by Topiltzin Atzil, the last king of Tula of Anahuac. It was a city populated by ten thousand, with an additional twelve thousand people who lived in xacal, straw huts distributed at the edge of a maar (crater) which housed the sacred lake of Cuscatlan. It was the capital of a larger monarchic state.

On Saturday June 17, 1524, led by Pedro de Alvarado, the Spanish conquistadors found the doors of Cuscatlan, capital of the Lordship of Cuscatlan. The company consisted of one hundred fifty units of infantry, cavalry and one hundred other slaves, prepared to attack the kingdom and take over the regional capital. Despite the resistance, the Spanish were victorious and incorporated the municipality into the domains of the Iberian metropolis.

The place was less relevant thereafter, as the town was caught in the dynamics of the rest of the country, which exploited its resources ending the colony. After the independence of Central America, San Salvador surpassed Antiguo Cuscatlan in importance, relegating it to a mere local capital.

In the present day, Antiguo Cuscatlan has gained an important edge, hosting major institutions, plazas, corporative headquarters and the biggest U.S Embassy of the region.

Plan de La Laguna Industrial Zone, Antiguo Cuscatlan

Downtown Antiguo

The majority of the population in the municipality live in the urban center, it is by far the most urbanized municipality in the country, but there are still a couple of people that live in the rural areas in the municipality on the southern area were the Cordillera del Balsamo passes through. It has three industrial zones: Santa Elena, Plan de La Laguna and Merliot. There are food, plastics, metal, textiles and chemicals factories. Tourist sites are the Basilica of Guadalupe and the Botanical Garden of Plan de la Laguna. One of the largest business centers in the country, and in Central America was opened during the mid 2010, this building reflects the boom of modern architecture in country, and the productive development of the country.

European Language Academy

Milagros Navas, a member of the Nationalist Republican Alliance party, has served as mayor since 1991. She has won seven consecutive elections, becoming the country's longest serving official. Various infrastructure improvement projects and institutional restructuring and renewal of the tax system have been attributed by some to Ms. Navas' administration.

Santa Elena Neighborhood

Courtyard Marriott Hotel

Santa Elena is the main neighborhood of Antiguo Cuscatlán, the neighborhood spans 65% of the municipality. Santa Elena is home to one of the world's largest American Embassy, as well as the Embassies of Malta and Belize.

The La Laguna Botanical Garden is south of the city of Antiguo Cuscatlan, with an area of 30 blocks. In this extension, 19.32 blocks form a primary forest reserve, 4.6 blocks are for public use in 32 areas that are home to over 3,500 species of plants from all over the world, a performance area, café and children's games, and 19 blocks make up the La Laguna forest, which is serves as a reforesting conservation area for the future can be visited for scientific, educational and recreational purposes.

This garden is a fairly recent development. The first German immigrants who came here established the dairy industry, cattle and coffee plantations. Here they settled in the mountains that now border the Plan de La Laguna and reproduced. The Deininger family brought trees and plants from around the world to the garden of his house, which grew enormously.

Over time, with changes in settlement patterns and the inevitable urbanization of the place, the Deininger family supported the idea of protecting and preserving the wooded area now known as the La Laguna Botanical Garden. It was opened on December 22, 1978, and since then annually receives an average of 24,000 students.

The Garden has a herbarium, a computerized database and a library specializing in plant taxonomy. Staff maintain constant exchanges with other foreign and different herbal specialists who collaborate in the identification of samples collected in El Salvador.

Antiguo Cuscatlan is in the municipality of the District of Nueva San Salvador, La Libertad department. It is bordered on the north by San Salvador, on the east by San Salvador and San Marcos, south of Nuevo Cuscatlan, and west by Nueva San Salvador. It is located in the geographic coordinates 13° 42'29 'LN (northern end) and 13° 37'56' LN (southern end), 89° 13'29 LWG (eastern end) and 89° 16'46 LWG (west end).

The German School of San Salvador, a German international school,[2] Colegio Americano, Colegio San Francisco, Colegio Augusto Walte, Instituto Hermanas Somascas, Colegio Esparza are private schools within the city; public schools such as Centro Escolar Walter Thilo Deininger, Escuela de Educación Parvularia de Antiguo Cuscatlán and Instituto Nacional de Antiguo Cuscatlán are located in the city as well.

Also, Antiguo Cuscatlán is the home of several universities in the country, such as José Simeón Cañas Central American University, José Matías Delgado University, Universidad Albert Einstein and Universidad Don Bosco.

Catholic Church

In the municipality of Antiguo Cuscatlan different festivals are celebrated, such as the Corn Festival held between July and August. On the other hand, the December 12 celebrations held in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The festivities of the municipality are celebrated in honor of the "Holy Innocents Children" on 28 December at the Parish Church at the Center for Antiguo Cuscatlan.

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  Citi-bank Tower
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• San Salvador
• Nueva San Salvador
• La Libertad Department
• Estadio Nacional de El Salvador
• Torre El Pedregal
• Concepción de Ataco