Municipality of San Juan de Opoa
San Juan de Opoa is a municipality in the department of Copán in Honduras.
According to the historian Dr. Federico Lunardi, Don Gonzalo de Alvarado founded the indigenous town of OPOA in 1536. He subsequently founded the places of Mongual and Chululan (currently Municipality of Las Flores) by order of the adelantado Don Francisco de Montejo.
In the population census of 1791, it was listed as the town of Opoa in the Curato of Quezailica. On December 14, 1904, the residents of the Village of San Juan de Opoa, under the jurisdiction of Santa Rosa, requested the creation of a new municipality. Opoa means «Meeting of Roads.»
OPOA: It is a word of indigenous origin, composed of three elements: o, from otli, meaning road; pol, a suffix to form augmentatives; and hua, from huacan, a possessive and indicative particle of place. The complete name is Opolhuacan, which means «Place with great roads.» The demonym for this is Opolhua, which has been contracted in Spanish to sound and be written as Opoa.
Location
The municipality borders Santa Rosa de Copán to the north, south, and west, and Lepaera to the east.
The municipal seat is located on the left bank of the Pajapas or Higuito River.
Villages
- San Juan de Opoa (municipal seat)
- La Colatina
- El Contamal
- El Coyolar
- El Limón
- El Pinal
- El Portillo
- La Cebratana
- La Laguna Negra
- La Majada
- Las Sandías
- Los Linderos
- Los Pozos
- Santa Elena
- Torihuaque
- Valle Maria Auxiliadora (La Majada)
