Nicaragua - The Evacuation of a City

 October 26

Hello everyone!

Ever heard about the one where a volcanic eruption caused a city to move?

A Chorotega tribal sculpture

Momotombo volcano

Nicaragua has sixteen volcanoes. One of these volcanoes, the brilliantly-named Momotombo, had a seismic eruption in 1610. It had been bubbling away for about 30 years prior, but this eruption apparently felt different.

Life here was a bit different before the Spanish arrived...

The volcano was regularly active during the 86 years of Spanish settlement in León Viejo

The eruption and simultaneous earthquake rocked the region next to Lake Xolotlán. There was a city on its shores, quite a famous colonial city. In January 1610, that city disappeared. Both metaphorically and literally.

A model of what archaeologists believe was the city of León

Foundations of the palace, which they think was 125 metres long

Our first stop in Nicaragua was the lovely town of León. This had also been one of the Spanish colonisers’ first stops. Well, León was. It’s just that León wasn’t…in León…

A picture of León

It is believed León Viejo also had a large church

Santiago de los Caballeros de León (now known as León Viejo, or Old León) was founded by Captain Francisco Hernandez de Córdoba. Fun fact: he was later executed and decapitated in the main square, with his body (not the head) being found centuries later. It was one of the first urban centres built by the Spanish in the New World. Its original layout is almost still intact so it helps with the study of urban planning. It is also about 30 kilometres from the current location of León.

Lakes and lagoons served as sustenance for aboriginal populations

After several violent events in the city, many colonisers had begun to emigrate to places like Granada, Managua and Chichigalpa, even before 1610

The reason it is still intact is because that volcanic eruption destroyed the original settlement. Apparently when some curious folk returned, they found only ashes and ruins of their original buildings. The city thus became ‘lost’ for over 350 years, overgrown with trees.

The major eruption was on January 11, 1610

The foundations of the town council building now have a large tree inside them!

When rediscovered by university researchers in 1967, Nicaragua was thus able to remind the world of an important colonial town in Latin America. Having been untouched for that long and the fact that more excavation occurred soon after, we now know more about the time before the Spanish arrived here in 1524.

Life in the city developed around the Central Plaza, which was near here. Markets, religious processions, dances and public executions were organised there.

After decades of searching, the ruins were finally discovered in 1967 by researchers from a Nicaraguan university

On a tour of this sweltering complex, we learnt about the lives of pre-Columbian societies such as the Chorotegas, Nicaraos and Sutiabas. They had a simple way of life revolving around hunting, fishing, agriculture and trade. Interestingly, it is believed that they may have had a democratic system of government, since they submitted all decisions to the vote of a council of elders or Monéxico. About 65,000 indigenous people had settled on the shores of Lake Xolotlan.

Many wood and stone sculptures were destroyed by the colonisers due to them being seen as demonic

Ocarinas, musical instruments, have been found here

The local knowledge of the lake and nearby lands helped the Spanish when they established a colonial settlement here. It was a natural port that allowed communication through the lakes to the Caribbean Sea and therefore the Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Fonseca in the Pacific. From here, the Spanish traded by land down to Panama and by sea down to Peru. They also traded north up to Acapulco.

This picture shows the extracting of gold, which was done by slaves

Nicaragua has a lot of gold and silver - this is a silver coin used at that time

The main takeaway from our visit - as much as I could gather from a tour which was exclusively in Spanish - was that the colonisers were…horrible. Lots of murder and slavery, very little help or support for the indigenous, exploitation and fraud - their time in León Viejo shows the dark side of colonisation. 

This is a monument to the indigenous. It is not from the time of León Viejo!

The man who was decapitated? I think we were told that his body was found here. Head never officially found.

It got darker in a more literal sense in 1610, when records indicate that the skies were blackened by smoke from Momotombo. It was this eruption that caused a mass migration from León Viejo. They took the Virgin of Merced from its altar and trudged west, ending up settling about 30 kilometres away in what we now know as…León! The city moved!

The governors' palace took 14 years to construct

Some people had time to gather their belongings in 1610 and took the sacred image of Jesus and the Virgin of Mercy to new León.

It’s an interesting archaeological discovery and worth a detour from the main city. It’s fascinating to think of what it would be like here if Momotombo hadn’t rained down on this part of the lake all those years ago.

So cool that we now know much more about pre-Columbian and Spanish life here!

Momotombo: 'great bubbling top'

Love you all,

Matt