Catedral de León

Lonely Planet review

Construction of León's most famous building began in 1747 and went on for over a hundred years. The largest cathedral in Central America, it was voted by the Nicaraguan National Assembly as the country's 'building of the millennium'. This architectural jewel is also home to Rubén Darío's tomb, guarded on one side of the altar by a sorrowful lion.

According to local legend, the city's leaders feared their original grandiose design for the structure would be turned down by Spanish imperial authorities, so they submitted a more modest, but bogus, set of plans.

The fairly sober facade (more triumph-of-the-will Neoclassicism than fluttering cherubs) fronts an interior that is a pantheon of Nicaraguan culture. Along with León's favorite son Darío, the cathedral is the final resting place of lesser known poets Alfonso Cortés and Salomón de la Selva, as well as Miguel Larreynaga. It's a high vaulted, light and unornamented space.