Berlín is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the

Usulután department Usulután (; from the Nawat language, meaning "city of the ocelots") is a department of El Salvador in the southeast of the country (Lenca region). The capital is Usulután. Created on June 22, 1865, it is El Salvador's largest department. It h ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

Etymology

The city's name was suggested by Don Serafín Brennen, a German, who also founded the city.

History

The area of what is now Berlín was settled by the

Lenca The Lenca or Lepawiran "people of the jaguar" are from present day southwest Honduras and eastern El Salvador in Central America. They once spoke many Dialects such as Chilanga, Putun, Kotik etc. Although there were different dialects, they under ...

and

Pipil Pipil may refer to: *Nahua people of western El Salvador *Pipil language Nawat (academically Pipil, also known as Nicarao) is a Nahuan language native to Central America. It is the southernmost extant member of the Uto-Aztecan family. It was spo ...

peoples.

Overview

The municipality of Berlín is made up of an urban center (pop. approx. 12,000) and 17 cantons or villages (pop. approx. 30,000). The urban center is located at 1,020 meters above sea level in the mountains of eastern El Salvador, with the territory extending to lowland cantons (zona baja) on the

Lempa River The Lempa River ( es, Río Lempa) is a river in Central America. Geography Its sources are located in between the Sierra Madre and the Sierra del Merendón in southern Guatemala, near the town of Olopa. In Guatemala the river is called ''Río O ...

and to highland cantons (zona alta) at as much as 1,500 meters above sea level. Some of the rural cantons include: Talpetates, Loma Alta, Las Delicias, El Colon, El Tablon.

Geologically Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Eart ...

, Berlin lies within the Berlín caldera, a

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

associated with

Tecapa Tecapa is a complex stratovolcano in central El Salvador. See also * List of volcanoes in El Salvador * List of stratovolcanoes A list of stratovolcanoes follows below. Africa Cameroon * Mount Cameroon Democratic Republic of Congo * ...

, a

complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...

whose summit rises east of the settlement.Global Volcanism Program - Tecapa
/ref> Berlin is known for coffee farming, which historically was the main economic activity for the municipality and concentrated in the zona alta. In the zona baja, including the Mechotique region, activities include cattle and sugar cane farming, as well as farming of subsistence crops such as beans and corn. Nearby municipalities include Mercedes Umaña and Santiago de Maria; the largest nearby city is San Miguel. Berlín's patron saint is

San José San José or San Jose (Spanish for Saint Joseph) most often refers to: *San Jose, California, United States *San José, Costa Rica, the nation's capital San José or San Jose may also refer to: Places Argentina * San José, Buenos Aires ** San ...

, and the annual patron saint festival is celebrated from March 15–20. The city boasts two high schools, a coffee processing plant, a bank, a credit union, a thriving municipal market, a youth community center, numerous small businesses, a Catholic church, and several Evangelical congregations. During the

Salvadoran Civil War The Salvadoran Civil War ( es, guerra civil de El Salvador) was a twelve year period of civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or ...

, Berlín was the site of several battles between the FMLN and military forces. The FMLN took control of the city for five days in 1983, but were driven out by heavy bombing by the military. The engagement resulted in significant destruction of property and civilian deaths. Berlín was heavily damaged by flooding and landslides resulting from

Hurricane Mitch Hurricane Mitch is the second-deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, causing over 11,000 fatalities in Central America in 1998, including approximately 7,000 in Honduras and 3,800 in Nicaragua due to cataclysmic flooding from the slow motion ...

in 1998 and by the earthquakes of January and February, 2001. To mitigate potential future natural disasters, an Environmental Unit (Unidad Ambiental) has been established within the mayor's office. A severe thunderstorm with heavy rain caused flooding and landslides in May 2007 which resulted in the deaths of 5 people. Efforts are currently underway to relocate the Brisas del Sol community, where the victims were from, away from the high risk area.

References

External links

*
The Official Page of Berlín, El Salvador
* Wikipedia in Spanish {{DEFAULTSORT:Berlin, Usulutan Calderas of Central America Municipalities of the Usulután Department Pleistocene stratovolcanoes Stratovolcanoes of El Salvador