The city of San Miguel was founded on May 8, 1530, by captain Luis de Moscoso under the name of San Miguel de la Frontera, as a Spanish bastion for the conquest of the Lenca kingdom of Chaparrastique. Its indigenous name, Chaparrastique, alludes to 'place of the beautiful orchids'. Relocated to its present site around 1586, it became the great urban and military center of the Salvadoran east.
Declared a department in 1824, San Miguel originally covered the entire east of the country, from the Lempa River to the Gulf of Fonseca, before Usulután, La Unión and Morazán were carved out of it. It was an important center of indigo production and trade during the colony, and its Cathedral, whose foundation stone was laid in 1862, is one of the iconic monuments of the east.
San Miguel is the great city of eastern El Salvador and the third most important in the country, undisputed capital of the eastern region. It grew as the commercial, industrial and service center of the entire east, at the foot of the imposing San Miguel Volcano, or Chaparrastique, whose steep and symmetrical cone dominates the landscape of the city and its surroundings.
With its intense commercial activity, its university, its markets and its tropical heat, San Miguel is the economic heart of a vast region that includes the neighboring departments and the enormous community of migueleños who have emigrated to the United States, whose remittances sustain much of the local economy. The city is the starting point and service hub for exploring the entire Salvadoran east.
San Miguel is famous throughout Central America for its Carnival, one of the largest and most celebrated in the region. It is held every November, as the close of the patron-saint festivities in honor of the Virgin of Peace, patroness of the city. During one massive night, the streets fill with stages, orchestras, comparsas, floats and hundreds of thousands of people who dance until dawn in one of the most massive celebrations in the country.
The Carnival, with its roots in the traditional patron-saint celebrations, has become an enormous cultural and tourist event that draws visitors from all over El Salvador and the neighboring countries, and a symbol of the joy and identity of the migueleño east.
The San Miguel Volcano, known by its indigenous name Chaparrastique, is one of the most active and imposing volcanoes in El Salvador, at some 2,130 meters in height. Its steep, perfect cone is the natural symbol of the east; a living volcano, it has had eruptions and ash emissions in recent times, such as that of December 2013, which covered the coffee plantations on its slopes in gray.
On the warm eastern plain stretches Lake Olomega, one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the Salvadoran east, shared with the department of La Unión. Declared a Ramsar site of international importance, it is a wetland rich in birds and home to riverside fishing communities. It is a destination for nature, lake life and birdwatching in the warm heart of the east.
The coast of San Miguel, in the area of Chirilagua, is one of the great secrets of Salvadoran surfing. Playa El Cuco is a wide sandy beach, a traditional destination of sun, sea and seafood for the families of the east, which in recent years also became the spearhead of the region's surf tourism, with new hotels and services.
Very nearby, Playa Las Flores is a point break of international fame, celebrated among surfers for its long, consistent right-hand wave, considered one of the best in El Salvador and in all of Central America. Unlike the more crowded beaches of the center, the surf of the east is experienced in a quieter, more natural and exclusive setting, with boutique resorts hidden among the cliffs and coconut palms of the migueleño coast.