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San Salvador's authorities are making real efforts to rid El Centro of its traffic pollution, wall-to-wall street stalls and decaying buildings. Progress is slow, however, and although the parks, plazas and buildings in the Centro Historico have received a generous makeover and some of the street sellers forcibly moved on, there is still a tangible sense of pollution, noise and decay, and it's unsafe to walk around after dark. Despite the dirt and crowds, however, there's a sense of real life here which isn't always apparent in the more upmarket suburbs to the west. At the heart of the city is the newly rejuvenated Plaza Barrios , with its freshly planted trees giving some semblance of shade, and plaques commemorating the six Jesuit priests murdered at La UCA in 1989 and the revolutionary FMLN soldiers. The northern edge of the square is dominated by the Catedral Metropolitana , its new facade strikingly decorated with colourful contemporary murals by Salvadorean artist Fernando Llort. The building dates back to 1888, but was severely damaged on a number of occasions, most recently by fire in 1951. Subsequent repairs were suspended by Archbishop Oscar Romero, who argued that funds should be diverted to feeding the hungry - his murder in March 1980 is widely perceived as the event that sent the country spiralling into civil war. After the archbishop's assassination, mourners carrying his body to its final resting place inside the cathedral were fired upon by government troops stationed on top of the surrounding buildings - many were slaughtered as they tried to reach shelter inside the cathedral. On the western edge of the plaza is the imposing bulk of the Renaissance-style Palacio Nacional , the seat of government until the devastating earthquake of 1986. The current building dates back to 1905, having replaced an earlier edifice which was destroyed by fire. Repairs to the damage caused by the 1986 earthquake are still underway - it's planned to house the national archives and a national history museum here when the restoration is finished. Facing the cathedral on the southern edge of the plaza is the Biblioteca Nacional , moved here after a large part of the collection was destroyed in the earthquake of 1986. The remaining books seem a little forlorn in their new home, a concrete building that was formerly a bank. East of Plaza Barrios along 4a C Ote is Parque Libertad , previously the heart of colonial San Salvador. The stained concrete church of El Rosario is built over the tomb of Jose Matias Delgado, father of independence, while the Iglesia la Merced , rebuilt from the original, where Delgado first called for independence in 1811, is a couple of blocks southeast. There's an impressive - in San Salvadorean terms - vista from the Plaza Libertad looking north, where the dome and facade of the cathedral rise majestically, with the volcano as a backdrop. One block northeast of the cathedral is the compact Plaza Morazan , bounded on its southern edge by the renaissance-style Teatro Nacional . Built with the profits of the coffee plantations and reflecting the impact of French culture in the early twentieth century, the restored interior - all red plush, marble and decorative plasterwork - harks back to grander times. Regular musical and theatrical events (advertised in the newspapers) are held here. If you walk east from the theatre along C Delgado you come to the Mercado Ex Cuartel , a hangar-like building on the site of a former military barracks, selling a reasonable range of handicrafts from El Salvador and Central America; the quality and selection of local crafts, however, is wider at the Mercado de Artesanias. East from the market, the city begins to disintegrate rapidly, with earthquake-damaged buildings struggling to remain upright. Five blocks north from El Centro, near the intersection of Av Espana and Alameda Juan Pablo II, is the green expanse of the Parque Campo Marte , popular with workers from the nearby Centro de Gobierno on their lunchbreaks and for family weekend picnics. Continue north along the eastern edge of the Parque Campo Marte and you come to perhaps the most commanding church in the city - and its largest functioning one - the Iglesia Don Rua . Built in the nineteenth century, the white bulk of the church towers above the surrounding houses; the stained glass windows are stunning. Southwest of Plaza Barrios is the sprawling Mercado Central , whose ever-expanding street stalls are a constant irritation to the city authorities. Anything and everything can be bought in its ruinous and cluttered alleys, even on a Sunday. Looming behind the market building is the Iglesia Calvario , whose dark, neo-Gothic bulk remains impressive, despite its dereliction.
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