Leon Travel Video Guide

Leon Travel Itinerary

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The capital of Nicaragua until 1857, LEON , 90km north of Managua, is these days a quiet provincial city - though it would be even quieter were it not for the presence of the National University , the country's premier academic institution. The original Leon was founded by Hernandez de Cordoba in 1524 at the foot of Volcan Mombotombo, where its ruins - now known as Leon Viejo - still lie. The city was subsequently moved northwest to its present-day location soon after Leon Viejo's destruction by an earthquake and volcanic eruption in 1609. Today, the city's main attraction is its Cathedral , the largest in Central America, while an array of other churches - eighteen in all, displaying a fine spectrum of architectural styles and photographic opportunities - seem to spring up on practically every corner.

For all its present-day peace, Leon has a violent history. In 1824, tensions between the city's Liberals and the Conservatives of Granada erupted - a total of seventeen battles were fought in the city over the course of the next twenty years. In 1956 the first President Somoza was gunned down in Leon by the martyr-poet Rigoberto Lopez Perez. During the Revolution in the 1970s the town's streets were again the scenes of several decisive battles between the Sandinistas and Somoza's forces, and much of the damage caused - bullet-scarred buildings, cracked sidewalks - is still visible. Many key figures in the Revolution either came from Leon or had their political start here.

The National University and the National Law School were (and perhaps still are) hotbeds of revolutionary ferment, and the presence of these institutions has contributed enormously to Leon's Liberal bent. While the student population livens things up considerably, the town generally seems very quiet, baking gently under the ferocious sun, although the atmosphere quickens in the evenings, when Mass-goers tumble from the churches and food and drink vendors set up on the central plaza.

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