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Nuestra Senora de la Paz
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San Miguel's imposing cathedral, while rather disappointing inside, holds the cherished statue of
Nuestra SeAħora de la Paz
, the city's patroness. Accounts differ as to how she arrived in the city. One version relates that in 1683, San Miguel and San Salvador gathered together an army to fight the English pirates then attacking coastal villages and advancing inland. On seeing the massed forces, the pirates chose to retreat, leaving behind them, in the small port of Amapala, a statue of the virgin, which was then taken to San Miguel. Another version has it that a fisherman, discovering a sealed casket on the beach, loaded it onto a donkey and began to walk to the city. The beast struggled on for fourteen days, before collapsing on the spot where the cathedral now stands. On opening the casket and seeing the contents, it was decided to build a temple to venerate the miraculous image. The statue was christened La Paz because of the cessation of bitter internecine fighting on her arrival.
Regardless of how she arrived, the statue's true moment of glory came during the eruption of VolcA?n Chaparrastique on September 21, 1787. On seeing a glowing river of lava advancing on San Miguel, the terrified citizens praying to the virgin to save them took the statue to the door of the cathedral and presented her to the volcano. The lava changed course and the city was saved. In honour of these events, San Miguel holds two months of fiesta, beginning with the virgin "descending" the volcano on September 21 and culminating in a procession through the streets, attended by thousands, on November 21. A more recent coda to the fiesta is the annual carnival held on November 29 Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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El Salvador,
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