Architecture sights in León
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Catedral de León
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 …
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Iglesia de la Merced
Home to León's patron saint, La Virgen de La Merced, Iglesia de la Merced with it's less immediately enchanting gray edifice (albeit with a glittering and ornate interior) is considered the city's second-most important church. The image, originally from Barcelona, was brought to León's original church in 1528. After Volcán Momotombo erupted and forced the city's evacuation, the Leónese built a new church here in 1615, replaced with the current building in the early 1700s.
The virgin's feast day, September 24, is one of León's biggest religious bashes.
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San Juan Bautista Subtiava
About 1km west of the León cathedral, the neighborhood is centered on San Juan Bautista Subtiava, better known as 'Catedral Subtiava,' and the oldest intact church in the city. Built in the 1530s and reconstructed in 1710, its relatively plain beige facade and precious wood interior is largely unadorned; even the struts are there to stabilize the structure during earthquakes.
With two exceptions: spirals outside, and an extraordinary sun icon mounted to the typical arched timber roof, pay homage to deities far older than the Spanish conquest.
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Iglesia de La Recolección
Three blocks north of the cathedral, the 1786 Iglesia de La Recolección is considered the city's most beautiful church, a Mexican-style baroque confection of swirling columns and bas-relief medallions that portray the life of Christ. Dyed a deep yellow accented with cream and age, the lavishly decorated facade may be what makes the cover of all the tourist brochures, but be sure to stop inside and admire the slender mahogany columns and ceiling decorated with harvest motifs.
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Iglesia El Calvario
A hodgepodge of neoclassical and baroque styles, 18th-century El Calvario stands at the top of Calle Central. The interior is nice, with predictably gory, full-sized statues of Jesus and the thieves being crucified, but you're here for the brightly painted facade between the red-brick bell towers, with brightly colored bas-relief biblical scenes that resemble comic-strip panels.
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Ermita de San Pedro
The Ermita de San Pedro, two blocks east and one block south of San Juan Bautista, was constructed between 1706 and 1718, and is considered one of the best examples of primitive baroque style in Nicaragua. This means that it's almost unadorned, save for three brick crosses inlaid into the adobe.
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Iglesia de San Francisco
The 1639 Iglesia de San Francisco is one of the oldest in the city, a national heritage site with lots of gold, a gorgeous nave, and rather rococo interior. It was abandoned between 1830 and 1881, then refurbished with two elaborate altarpieces for San Antonio and Our Lady of Mercy.
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Convent San Francisco
Founded in 1639, Convent San Francisco was badly damaged during the 1979 Battle for León. Most of the church, which still has two of the original altars, is being renovated, but you can check out what used to be the convent at Hotel El Convento.
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Iglesia San Juan de Dios
Don't let the dumpy, modernist neoclassic exterior of 1625 Iglesia San Juan de Dios fool you - when it's open, the interior is one of the city's prettiest, with lots of precious wood and a very human scale.
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Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, built in 1743, is León's only church oriented north-south, and historically connected to the city by the 1850 Puente Guadalupe, built across the Río Chiquito.
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Iglesia Zaragoza
For something completely different, swing by ultra-Gothic 1884 Iglesia Zaragoza, one of the best spots for film students to stage a vampire flick.
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