Sonsonate Department
| Sonsonate | ||
|---|---|---|
| Department | ||
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 Location within El Salvador |
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| Coordinates: 13°42′11″N 89°41′35″W / 13.703°N 89.693°WCoordinates: 13°42′11″N 89°41′35″W / 13.703°N 89.693°W | ||
| Country |
 El Salvador
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| Created (given current status) |
1824 | |
| Seat | Sonsonate | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 1,225.8 km2 (473.3 sq mi) | |
| Area rank | Ranked 9th | |
| Population | ||
| • Total | 463,739 | |
| • Rank | Ranked 6th | |
| • Density | 380/km2 (980/sq mi) | |
| Time zone | CST (UTC−6) | |
| ISO 3166 code | SV-SO | |
Sonsonate is a department of El Salvador in the western part of the country. The capital is Sonsonate.
The department has a population of over 463,000 and an area of 1,226 km².
Created on June 12, 1824. The El Salvador National Parliament decided on January 29, 1859 to separate from the department the cities of Apaneca, San Pedro Puxtla, Guaymango and Jujutla and give these cities to Santa Ana Department.
Sonsonate City was the second capital of the Federal Republic of Central America in 1834.
The department remains the heart of the Pipil culture in the country, home to several ancient traditions and to most of the few remaining Nahuatl speakers in El Salvador.
It is an overwhelmingly agricultural area, with extremely fertile volcanic soils that once were the most valuable resource in Central America for the Spanish conquistadors who profited from its ancient cacao plantations. Its name appropriately means "Place of 400 rivers" or "Place of many waters" as it receives well over 2,000mm (79 inches) of rain a year.
Irma Dimas of Sonsonate was Miss El Salvador in 2005.
It is located at 65 Kilometers of San Salvador and at a height of 225 meters. It is in the margins of Centzunat, Sensunapan, or Grande River of Sonsonate. It is joined to the capital and Port of Acajutla through modern highways, as well as to Santa Ana and Ahuachapán.
Sonsonate was founded in 1552, with the title and name of Villa of Sagrado Espiritu, by Antonio Rodriguez. In 1553, Pedro Ramirez de Quiñonez and the bishop Francisco Marroquin gave it the name of Villa de la Santísima Trinidad. On April 1, 1824, it obtained the title of city and on June 12 of the same year, that of Departmental Head. In 1834, it was capital of the Central American Federation under the command of President Senator Jose Gregorio Salazar.
Its parochial church, although inspired by colonial style, is from a later date to the independence, since it was blessed on April 1, 1887. On the other hand, the church of Santo Domingo, of calicanto, brick, and tile, was built in 1726 under the advocacy of the Santo Angel de la Guarda. In 1834 it was seat to the federal authorities of Central America and from 1841 to 1846, to a school of 2nd teaching that was directed by Friar Jeronimo Zelaya.
In the park “Rafael Campos”, a column with the marble bust of the ex-president Rafael Campos (1813–1890) was erected in 1913. He was called the “Salvadoran Aristides”. During his administration, the first map of El Salvador (1858) was raised. The national army, under the command of General Ramón Belloso, fought and defeated the filibusters of General William Walker in the battles of Masaya and Granada, in Nicaragua.
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Wikipedia