Juayúa

Juayúa began as a Pipil town before the Spanish conquest. By 1550 it had an estimated 300 inhabitants, and by 1577 it was a town where Franciscan friars based in Sonsonate taught the faith. Towards the end of the 16th century the friars set up an image like the Black Christ of Esquipulas and built the first chapel of what became the church of Santa Lucía. In 1770 the archbishop of Guatemala, Pedro Cortés y Larraz, recorded the town as part of the parish of Apaneca, with 526 people.

Coffee changed everything. Some families began to grow it around 1838 or 1839, and by the second half of the 19th century the crop had made Juayúa a prosperous and picturesque town; by 1890 it had 3,980 inhabitants and drinking water piped from the Cerro Los Naranjos. The church was rebuilt more than once: the first, of adobe, fell in an earthquake, and the second, a neoclassical wooden building, burned down.

In the 20th century the town was caught up in the peasant uprising of 1932, whose crushing in La Matanza killed an estimated 10,000 to 40,000 people, mostly Pipil peasants. The present church was built between 1953 and 1956 and inaugurated in January 1957. Small coffee growers, struggling alone with debts, pests and prices, later formed the San José La Majada cooperative, still one of the strongest in the sector. Since 1996 Juayúa has been part of the tourist route first called the Ruta del Café and later the Ruta de las Flores, and since 1997 it has held its weekend food fair.

Faith and the Black Christ are at the centre of Juayúa's identity. The image in the church of Santa Lucía is a sister to the revered Christ of Esquipulas in Guatemala, and the patron-saint festivities from 1 to 15 January draw people of faith who come, as at Esquipulas, to give thanks for the past year. The festivities bring commercial fairs, the election of a festival queen and a funfair, with the main day on 15 January. Inside the church, the high altar is clad in marble and the stained glass and images were brought from Europe.

The town has also made itself a gallery. The walls of its cafés, restaurants and shops are covered in murals by local artists, ranging from surrealism to realistic portraits; along the streets, walls, posts and signs are painted with flowers in a nod to the Ruta de las Flores. The weekend food fair turns the square into the town's social centre.

Local legend adds a touch of mystery: it is said that at midnight the Princess of Juayúa appears among the shadows of La Calera, near the waterfalls.

The district had about 24,300 inhabitants at the 2024 census, spread over about 103 square kilometres. The town stands at about 1,040 metres in the Apaneca-Ilamatepec range, the country's largest coffee-producing region, and coffee remains the main economic activity, with farms covering the surrounding hills, among them the Larín finca, and a coffee museum nearby.

Tourism has become the second pillar. Visitors from El Salvador and abroad come for the scenery, the events and the town's place on the Ruta de las Flores, and weekends are busiest, when the food fair fills the central square and the town's restaurants set out their tables. The countryside around holds rivers, waterfalls and lagoons — among them the Laguna Verde and the Laguna de las Ranas — that are used for ecotourism.

During the week the town is quieter, centred on the market beside the church, the comedores around it and the coffee work in the hills.

Juayúa is best known for its Feria Gastronómica, held every weekend since 1997 in the town centre. Local restaurants set up in the square to serve traditional dishes — chicken soup, pupusas, yuca with pork, tamales and seafood — alongside dishes from other countries, and visitors come from across El Salvador and abroad to eat there.

Through the week, the comedores in and around the market next to the church serve cheap, everyday Salvadoran food, including pupusas, thick corn or rice tortillas stuffed with cheese, refried beans, chicharrón or loroco flower buds and served with curtido, a tangy cabbage slaw, and tomato salsa. Panes rellenos, warm stuffed sandwiches, are another typical Salvadoran dish.

Coffee is the local drink. It is grown on the farms of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec range around the town, the country's main coffee region, and served in the cafés of the centre, which are also known for their desserts. Horchata made with rice milk and morro seeds, and tamarind juice, are popular cold drinks across the country.