Santa Tecla, El Salvador

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Santa Tecla
City and Municipality
From top, left to right: Iglesia El Carmen, Palacio Municipal de Santa Tecla, Paseo El Carmen.
Coat of arms
Nickname(s):  Tecla, Nueva San Salvador
Motto:  ¡Inseparable de Ti!
Santa Tecla
Coordinates: 13°40′23″N 89°14′26″W / 13.67306°N 89.24056°W / 13.67306; -89.24056
Country	El Salvador
Department	La Libertad Department
Metro	San Salvador Metropolitan Area
Town	8 August 1854 as Nueva San Salvador
City	1 January 1856
Department Capital	21 January 1865
Renamed as Santa Tecla	1 January 2004
Government
• Type	Democratic, Mayor-Council Municipality
• Mayor	Henry Flores (Nuevas Ideas)
Area
• CIty	112.2 km2 (43.32 sq mi)
• Urban	9.0 km2 (5.5 sq mi)
Elevation	931 m (3,053.6 ft)
Population
• CIty	124,694
• Density	1,902/km2 (36,200/sq mi)
• Municipality	139,908
Time zone	UTC−6 (Central Standard Time)
SV-LI	CP 1501
Area code	+ 503
HDI (2007)	0.821 – very high[1]
Website	http://www.santatecladigital.gob.sv//

Santa Tecla (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈsanta ˈtekla]) is a city in the La Libertad department of El Salvador. It is the capital of the department of La Libertad.^[2]

The city was named after Saint Thecla who was a saint of the early Christian Church, and a reported follower of Paul of Tarsus in the 1st century AD. She is not mentioned in the New Testament, but the earliest record of her comes from the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla, probably composed in the early 2nd century.

Santa Tecla is situated at the southern foot of the San Salvador Volcano, and it is a suburb of San Salvador (14.5 km), the capital city. The municipality of Antiguo Cuscatlán sits on its eastern border.