Silver-hill seat that stole Honduras' capital from Comayagua
Tegucigalpa—formally the Central District municipality—became Honduras' capital on 30 October 1880 when President Marco Aurelio Soto moved government from Comayagua. Spaniards claimed the site on 29 September 1578 in the highland department of Francisco Morazan, on a Lenca and Tolupan settlement.
The popular translation of the name, hills of silver from a Nahuatl word, is shaky, since local people of the time apparently did not know the area held ore. Alternatives include painted rocks, a Mexican reading as place of residence of the noble, and philologist Alberto Membreño's view that it means in the homes of the sharp stones, arguing Taguzgalpa was really the old name of eastern Honduras. Locals shorten it to Tegus.
Spanish settlers founded the mining town of Real de Minas de San Miguel de Tegucigalpa in 1578, and Juan de la Cueva became its first mayor the next year. Early landmarks include the Dolores Church of 1735, San Miguel Cathedral of 1765 and the mint of 1780. On 10 June 1762 it was raised to a royal villa, but its local government was abolished in 1788, folded into Comayagua in 1791 and restored in 1817, when Mayor Narciso Mallol began a ten-arch masonry bridge over the Choluteca River, finished four years later. It gained city status in 1821.
Honduras's first Congress, in 1824, had the two leading cities take turns as capital, and the seat kept swinging after 1838 until Soto fixed it in Tegucigalpa. Legend blames Comayagua society for snubbing his wife; a likelier explanation is Soto's stake in the Rosario Mining company. The 1936 constitution joined Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela, which face each other across the Choluteca, into a Central District, and the 1982 constitution keeps that arrangement as the permanent capital.
The Central District is the largest of Francisco Morazán's 28 municipalities, set in a valley ringed by mountains. It hosts 25 embassies, the state power and telecoms firms ENEE and Hondutel, and the National Autonomous University. In 2009 the city reported revenue of 1.955 billion lempiras, more than any Central American capital except Panama City. Growth has outrun planning, though: poverty and dense building persist, and roads struggle with more than 400,000 vehicles.
Source: Tegucigalpa
