León

History

The first city named León in Nicaragua was founded in 1524 by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba about 30 kilometres (20 mi) east of the present site. The city was abandoned in 1610 after a series of earthquakes spawned by a volcanic eruption. The ruins of that city are known as León Viejo and were excavated in 1960. In the year 2000, León Viejo was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

León had been the capital of Nicaragua since colonial times. So naturally, when Nicaragua withdrew from the United Provinces of Central America in 1839, León became the capital of the new nation. For some years, the capital shifted back and forth between León and the city of Granada. Liberal administrations preferred León while Conservative administrations preferred Granada, until as a compromise proposed by the then Supreme Director of Nicaragua, Fulgencio Vega, Managua was agreed upon to be the permanent capital in 1852.

In 1950, the city of León had a population of 31,000 people. Nicaraguan president Anastasio Somoza García was shot and mortally wounded in León on 21 September 1956.

Heritage

León is rich in both monuments and historical places. Some architectural monuments include:

Cárcel la 21 (Prison 21) was a jail located in the San Sebastian neighborhood of Leon. It was a detention center which housed political prisoners and was a symbol of torture. Construction began in 1910 and it was first occupied in 1921. The National Heroine Blanca Aráuz was incarcerated in the facility during the guerrilla insurgency following the Constitutionalist War. During the Somoza regime, it housed political prisoners and those who were "disappeared" by the Guardia Nacional. The façade of the building was destroyed during fighting between the National Guard and Sandinistas in 1979. Since 2000 the jail has served as an art museum, which also attracts visitors interested in the macabre.

Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of León, a typical colonial baroque building built between 1747 and 1814. Because of its solid, anti-seismic construction, its walls have endured earthquakes, eruptions of the Cerro Negro volcano, and bombings during civil wars. Several cannons were placed on the roof both during the siege of the city by conservative forces in 1824 and during the revolution of 1979 against president Anastasio Somoza Debayle.

The Assumption is the largest cathedral in Central America and has been the first episcopal seat of Nicaragua since 1531, making it one of the oldest dioceses in the Americas. In the cathedral's crypts are buried several illustrious figures, such as poet and diplomat Rubén Darío at the foot of the statue of St. Paul. Darío was the leading figure of the Modernism Poetic Movement of the late 1800s to early 1900s, and was declared the Prince of Spanish Letters by literary figures of the Spanish-speaking world. Other illustrious figures buried in the cathedral are the poets Salomón de la Selva and Alfonso Cortés, the father of Nicaragua's independence Miguel Larreynaga, classical composer and musician José de la Cruz Mena, and several bishops.

There are a number of tunnels that connect the cathedral with other temples that were used as hideouts or escape routes during attacks by British, Dutch, and French pirates. However, the tunnels are not accessible to the public, as some have been converted to the sewer system service. In the early 20th century, the first bishop of Leon and the last in Nicaragua, Archbishop Simeón Pereira y Castellón (the same who presided over the funeral of Darío on February 13, 1916) commissioned Granadan sculptor Jorge Navas Cordonero to make a statue of the Virgin Mary to crown the top the façade, and two pairs of Atlantean figures to support the beams that connect the central gable to the flanking bell towers. Navas also sculpted the statues of the twelve apostles inside, along with the columns of the central nave, and the lion at the tomb of Dario, which resembles the Lion of Lucerne in Switzerland. He also created several moldings in the interior walls and built the Tabernacle Chapel.

Geography

Leon sits in the coastal lowlands of northwestern Nicaragua with volcanoes and hills of the central highlands in view to the east.

Geological features around Leon include:

Poneloya beach, a major tourist destination on the Pacific Ocean.

San Jacinto Swarms, geothermal place at the base of the Santa Clara volcano which form part of its vents. This phenomenon is known as Thermal sharpen to simmer.

Momotombo volcano, with its 1,300 m (4,270 ft) summit, it is a visual reference in the Leonese landscape. At its feet lies León Viejo. The Momotombo name is a Native American word for "Great Summit Burning". There is a geothermal power plant on the foothills.

Cerro Negro volcano, one of the youngest in the world (1850), Cerro Negro has wrought havoc several times to the city of León and its surrounding area, since it was born with long, sky-clogging, and destructive ashfalls, the most recent in 1995.

Climate

León has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen: Aw). The average annual temperature is 31.3 °C or 88.3 °F and yearly cumulative rainfall is 2,000 millimetres or 79 inches.

Notable people

José de la Cruz Mena, classical composer (1874–1907).

Azarías Pallais, poet and literary figure (1884–1954).

Luis Pallais Debayle, politician (born 1930)

Alfonso Cortés, poet (1893–1969).

Salomón of the Jungle, poet, writer, diplomat, translated W Whitman to Spanish (1893–1959).

Antenor Sandino, metaphysical poet (1899–1969).

Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Nicaraguan president (1st term: 1967–1972, 2nd term: 1974–1979).

Enrique Bermúdez, Contra leader (1932–1991).

Dr. Jose Venancio Berrios Obregon. Las Penitas Beach Founder (1960). Political Chief of Leon, Nicaragua (1900-1979)

Madre Adela Galindo

José Areas, percussionist, played timbales in the Latin rock group Santana in 1969–1977 and 1987–1989 (1946-today).

International relations

Twin towns and sister cities

León is twinned with: