- San Salvador Cathedral
The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Holy Savior ("Catedral Metropolitana de San Salvador") is the principal church of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese ofSan Salvador and the seat of the Archbishop of San Salvador. The church was twice visited byPope John Paul II who said that thecathedral was "intimately allied with the joys and hopes of the Salvadoran people." [ http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1996/february/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19960208_pastorale-san-salvador_sp.html, Greeting of the Holy Father John Paul II to Catechists in the Cathedral of San Salvador. ] During his visits in1983 and1996 , the Pope knelt and prayed before the Tomb of ArchbishopÓscar Romero , assassinated in 1980, whose tomb here is a major pilgrim draw.History
The Cathedral site is the place where the old Temple of "Santo Domingo" (
St. Dominic ) once stood. The Cathedral stands on the northern side of "Plaza Barrios", named after the Salvadoran military hero,Gerardo Barrios . On the western periphery of Plaza Barrios is the old National Palace building. The Cathedral has a history of tragedy and rebirth. Since 1888, a wooden structure Cathedral served as the seat of San Salvador's archbishops. On August 8, 1951, the Old San Salvador Cathedral was consumed by fire as a distraught crowd of onlookers watched. [ http://www.elsalvadorturismo.gob.sv/catedralmetro.htm, CATEDRAL METROPOLITANA. ]For the next forty years, the San Salvador Cathedral was a barren concrete structure, of exposed bricks and jutting iron buttresses. During the late 1970s, Archbishop
Óscar Romero famously deferred completion of the Cathedral in order to fund projects for the poor. During this time, the Cathedral was the stage of several national sagas, including the grand funerals of assassinated political figures, and Romero's fiery Sunday masses. On May 9, 1979, 24 demonstrators were gunned down by supposedly security forces on the front steps of the Cathedral during the San Salvador Cathedral Massacre. [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/9/newsid_2520000/2520219.stm, 1979: El Salvador cathedral bloodbath. ]An even greater toll was exacted on
Palm Sunday , March 31, 1980, during the funeral of Archbishop Romero, when 44 people were killed during a stampede after some elements, allegedly members of security forces (although it has never been corroborated) fired on mourners/worshippers and on Romero's funeral cortege, the real gunmen were never identified. Later, the square in front of the Cathedral was the site of rapturous celebrations after the signing of theChapultepec Peace Accords that ended theSalvadoran Civil War in 1992. The Cathedral was completed and inaugurated on March 19, 1999 and finished off with a festive tiled facade by the Salvadoran masterFernando Llort . [ http://www.elsalvadorturismo.gob.sv/catedralmetro.htm, CATEDRAL METROPOLITANA. ]Architecture & Style
The festive and colorful facade borders a shrine to an image of the Divine Saviour of the World (
Jesus , after the Transfiguration, thepatron saint of El Salvador) sculpted by Friar Francisco Silvestre García in1777 . [ http://www.elsalvadorturismo.gob.sv/catedralmetro.htm, CATEDRAL METROPOLITANA. ] The main altar features an image of the Divine Saviour donated by theHoly Roman Emperor Charles V in1546 . The image rests on a four-columnbaldocchino surrounded by images of the prophetsMoses andElijah , who take part in theTransfiguration story. The main altar is surrounded by eight great paintings showing scenes from the life ofChrist painted by Andrés García Ibáñez. [ http://www.elsalvadorturismo.gob.sv/catedralmetro.htm, CATEDRAL METROPOLITANA. ] Above it all, the bright "Churriguresque" cupula stands 148 feet in height, with a 79 foot radius. [ http://www.elsalvadorturismo.gob.sv/catedralmetro.htm, CATEDRAL METROPOLITANA. ]Footnotes
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