Iglesia El Carmen

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In 1855, one year after the city of Nueva San Salvador was founded, Colonel León Castillo started the construction of a church dedicated to the Lady of El Carmen. León Castillo had been active in armies under the command of General Francisco Morazan.

Records refer to him as a courageous soldier. His military career had been characterised by his commitment to liberal reform, something illustrated with his involvement in the expulsion of religious orders from El Salvador and the expropriation of churches since 1829, year in which the liberal revolution began in Central America. The legend says that in 1840, León Castillo was injured during combat in Guatemala and managed to crawl to Iglesia El Carmen del Cerrito where he promised to the Lady of El Carmen that if she saved his life, he would work his whole life to propagate her faith and he would build a temple for her. He was taken care of by the priest Antonio Larrazabal and he lived in the temple for almost two years. Colonel Castillo was instructed in Catholic faith and sciences, before he finally could return to El Salvador.

[edit] Construction

The history that led to the construction of the church can be explained in several phases.

1st Phase: 1856-1891: León de Jesús Castillo

León Castillo fulfilled his promise of reconstructing the chapel of Our Lady of El Carmen in the Church of la Merced in San Salvador after the earthquake of 1854. When a new capital was established in Nueva San Salvador after this earthquake, León Castillo decided to erect the church of his dreams in the new city.

Bishop Miguel Pineda and Saldaña and León Castillo chose a location for the church in the north of the city, nearby "Belén" school. The construction of this chapel started August 9, 1856. When the construction was well under way, León Castillo received an image of the Lady of El Carmen from his friend in Guatemala Luis Batres. This image was blessed and placed in the modest construction by April 11, 1860. However, this building did not end up becoming Castillo's dream temple. He would have to wait and work hard to secure bigger land elsewhere in the city and the necessary funding to build the church he wanted.

The war of 1863 compelled León Castillo to suspend construction to care for the wounded and the sick. He had also been working against the liberals to avoid the seminar next to Iglesia Concepción to be closed down and to prevent the forced emigration of the clerics.

When the war ended, the Bishop helped Colonel Castillo start the work with the temple again. The sacristy was built, as well as two aisles parallel to the central aisle and the belfry. The walls in the ends and on the sides where made of "talpetate" and brick. The construction of the belfry was initiated and three bells where placed on the top. An entrance was also built under the belfry. It led to the convent of Capuchin friars. The first Capuchin priests arrived in the middle of 1864 and they were provisionally placed in the seminar of Iglesia Concepción.

In 1866 Bishop Saldaña gave the unfinished church to the Capuchins. The new owners gave the temple the name of Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Belén which was inaugurated on March 1.

The current building of Iglesia El Carmen

In 1871, León Castillo acquired more land to the north of the main plaza in the city in 3rd Street-West. He decided to construct the temple he had dreamed of here. For this, he needed to acquire more land and gradually he managed to purchase it from the land owners of the area. First from Don Gregorio Valle on September 16, 1873; then from Don Esteban Vásquez on September 17; from Don Manuel Dubón Rodríguez on October 20, 1874; and finally, a fourth piece of land from Don Tomás Dubón on November 17, 1877. Iglesia El Carmen ended up being a bit larger than 5,000 square metres.

The ecclesiastical licence to build the new temple was granted by the episcopal edict on November 23, 1876. The one to set the first stone was Bishop Luis Cárcamo y Rodríguez on November 27, 1878. The construction was financed mostly by donations and raffles. León Castillo managed to maintain construction work uninterruptedly. The Colonel died on November 16, 1891 and his body was buried under the first window of the left aisle.

2nd Phase: 1892-1894: PP. Bernal y Argueta

Bishop (later Archbishop) Antonio Pérez y Aguilar ordered that Father Juan José Bernal should continue construction work and named him the chaplain. After two years of work the central aisle was completely abilitated and in 1893 Father José E. Argueta was named new chaplain. Father Argueta continued leading the construction work. In 1894 the left chapel was finished and it was dedicated to the Sacred Family and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

3rd Phase: 1894-1916: P. José María López-Peña

Father José María López-Peña made considerable changes of notable artistic quality in the main aisle. He decided to make the roof of the central aisle higher, following Gothic style. Father López Peña also ordered the construction of a bigger and newer image of Our Lady of El Carmen. He paid the artist 175 silver pesos. This image was placed in the primitive major altar in the main aisle. In 1897 the sacristy was inaugurated. In 1898 the right chapel was opened. It was dedicated to the Holy Trinity and Divine Providence. These were represented with the most valuable sculptures in the temple, which were an inheritance from the colonial period and had been kept in San Salvador in Iglesia San Francisco which was demolished during the earthquake of 1873. The chapel of the Holy Trinit and Divine Providence was almost entirely financed by the contributions of Beatriz Orantes de Estévez, the Gallardo Family and Doña Concha Morales Villaseñor.

In 1899 Father López-Peña assigned the artis Pascasio González the decoration of the most visible part of the major altar, imitating Gothic style. In 1900 the brick pavement was opened and the new altar was inaugurated on July 16. The old altar was moved to the chapel of the Sacred Family where the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was installed. In June 1904 decoration works were concluded in the chapel of the Holy Trinity. The convent on the north or the temple was also completed. In the end of the same year the zinc and wooden constructions of the facade were finished and also the towers designed by Jose Jerez. The carpenter Luz Molina and the artist José Ruiz accepted to direct the work charging no honoraries for their contribution.

In 1941 the chaplain José Jerez became dissatisfied with the work in wood and he ambitiously redesigned the facade and towers. These plans never materialised, but the drawings have been conserved. José Jerez intentions were to construct a fabulous Gothic temple in stone and cement.

The last part of the temple in 1904 was built under the direction of a board composed of well known personalities in Santa Tecla These personalities were: Enriqueta Fajardo de Araujo, Carmen Estévez, Gertrudis Orellana, Isabel Morales, Juana Olivares Saldaña, Josefina Alcaine and Rosalía Chavez.

On 1910 the facade of the temple was concluded and on March 25 the bronze image of the Lady of El Carmen was blessed and inaugurated. It was donated by Recaredo Gallardo and his wife Carmen Alvarado de Gallardo. The paint inside the temple was concluded in 1913. This concluded the construction work that started by León Castillo 37 years earlier. Father López-Peña made further efforts to expand the convent in the north of the church and he gave it to priests of the Society of Jesus who after this moment on became responsible for the church. Ever since then, a Jesuit priest has always been the chaplain of the church.

4th Phase: The arrival of the Jesuits

When the necessary canonical authorisations were granted, the priests of the Society of Jesus received the church and residence of El Carmen in January 1916. The sanctuary had to be repaired a little over a year later due to an earthquake. The painting and artistic restoration was performed by brother Frías S.J. He is the same artist that painted the image of the Lady of Guadalupe in the Gothic altar of the Salesian workshops of the School of Arts and Trades in Santa Tecla. The crucified Christ of the altar and the screen of the main gate, confessional booths and pulpit were carved in these workshops. Later, the Jesuits ordered two sculptures to the famous workshops for religious art in Barcelona.

5th Phase: After the Earthquakes of 2001

On January 13 and February 11, 2001, the territory of El Salvador was struck by two powerful earthquakes of 7,7 degrees and 6,1 degrees in the Ricther scale. These events have completely damaged Iglesia El Carmen, reason for which the Society of Jesus has been working to come up with funds to demolish the temple and start the process of building a new one. Public authorities in El Salvador have delayed this procedure because they want to make sure that the structures of the church cannot be rescued before they authorise the demolition of this cultural and historical milestone of Nueva San Salvador. The "El Carmen Project" is a non-profit foundation that has been set up by Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas" to attract and administer donations for the reconstruction of the church.

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