Santa Tecla, El Salvador

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Santa Tecla is a municipality in the La Libertad department of El Salvador.

The city of Santa Tecla, El Salvador has more than 300,000 inhabitants (SIBASI 2001). It is situated at the southern foot of the San Salvador Volcano, and very close to San Salvador (14.5 Km)^{[citation needed]}, the capital city.

Santa Tecla was founded as "Nueva San Salvador" on August 8^th 1854 by the president José María San Martín after the capital city was destroyed by an earthquake. It served as capital of the republic from 1855 to 1859 and became departmental capital in 1865. The continued development of the city was spurred by the success of the local coffee industry, becoming a very productive commercial city^{[citation needed]}.

In 2003, the city was renamed to "Santa Tecla," which was the historical name of the region prior to the founding of the city.

Coordinates: 13°41′N, 89°17′W