Granada, Nicaragua Summary

Set on the western shore of Lago de Nicaragua some 45km southeast of Managua, GRANADA was once the jewel of Central America. The oldest Spanish-built city in the isthmus, it was founded in 1524 by Francisco Hernández de Cordoba, who named it after his home town in Spain. During the colonial period Granada became fabulously rich, its wealth built upon exploitation: sited only 20km from the Pacific, the city was a transit point for shipments of gold and other minerals that were mined throughout the Spanish empire, with the help of indigenous slave labour. Laden Spanish galleons would sail from Granada across the lake, down the Río San Juan, out to the Caribbean and then to Europe. The wealth of the city also attracted traffic in the other direction: Granada’s gold stores proved tempting to buccaneers and it was sacked several times by English and French pirates, until the Spanish built their Castillo, a fort on the banks of the Río San Juan.