[1] In 1855, one year after the city of Nueva San Salvador was founded, Colonel León Castillo started constructing a church dedicated to the Lady of El Carmen.

León Castillo fulfilled his promise of reconstructing the chapel of Our Lady of El Carmen in the Church of la Merced in San Salvador after the earthquake of 1854.

When a new capital was established in Nueva San Salvador after this earthquake, León Castillo decided to erect the church of his dreams in the new city.

Bishop Miguel Pineda y Saldaña and León Castillo chose a location for the church in the north of the city, near the current Belén school.

When the construction was well under way, León Castillo received an image of the Lady of El Carmen from Luis Batres, a friend who lived in Guatemala.

He would have to wait and work hard to secure a larger piece of land elsewhere in the city and also obtain the necessary funding to build the church he wanted.

Bishop Antonio Pérez y Aguilar, who later became an archbishop, ordered Father Juan José Bernal to continue construction work on the church and also named him its chaplain.

[1] Father José María López-Peña made considerable changes of notable artistic quality in the main aisle of the church.

The chapel of the Holy Trinity and Divine Providence was almost entirely financed by the contributions of Beatriz Orantes de Estévez, the Gallardo Family, and Doña Concha Morales Villaseñor.

In 1899 Father López-Peña commissioned Pascasio González to decorate the most visible part of the main altar, and to do so in an imitation of the Gothic style.

Father López-Peña made further efforts to expand the convent; he eventually gave it to priests of the Society of Jesus, who have been responsible for the church since.

[1] When the necessary canonical authorizations were granted, the priests of the Society of Jesus received the church and residence of El Carmen in January 1916.

He is the same artist who painted the image of the Lady of Guadalupe in the Gothic altar of the Salesian workshops of the School of Arts and Trades in Santa Tecla.

These events completely damaged Iglesia del Carmen, prompting the Society of Jesus to initiate plans to raise funds to demolish the existing structure and begin building a new church.

[2] The "El Carmen Project" is a non-profit foundation that has been set up by Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas" to attract and administer donations for the reconstruction of the church.