Ma and Pa Pedlingham where here a few weeks ago for a flying visit (here we are atop Iglesia de La Merced) and I added Tour Guide to my list of many roles. Doing so made me realise that I am still yet to take you on a tour of the place that I have called home for the past 5 months.This is certainly a tale of two halves as there is little relation between the Granada of the communities in which I work and that of colonial historic Granada. Part 1 will focus on the city of Granada and Part 2 on its surrounding communities.
The city of Granada was founded in 1524 Located on the shores of Lake Nicaragua it grew to be a very rich and strategically important city for the Spanish Crown. It was the first Atlantic coast city in
HispanoAmerica, a strange fact considering it is approx. 250 kilometres from the coast. It is however linked to the ocean via Lake Nicaragua and Rio San Juan (see later blog). It has had a turbulent history, being attacked and levelled countless times by pirates and no-gooders. The Granada you see today was mostly built towards the end of the 19th century after the last major fire to level the city.
At that time Nicaragua was being ruled by filibuster William Walker. A north American despot he took advantage of the two warring political parties (Liberals from Leon and Conservatives from Granada) to declare himself president and had plans to annex Nicaragua to the US and even class it as a State (some would some that more recent US foreign policy had a somewhat similar sentiment but that’s a different story). Finally the two parties formed an alliance and managed to oust the none too happy Walker who on retreat put the city to flame, leaving as a parting gift a sign reading “Here was Granada”
Since his demise there has always remained a degree of tension between the two political cities. However movement was made with the formation of a neutral capital city, Managua, in the late 1800's. The only oversight of Managua was its placement on a substantial seismic fault which lead to its near total destruction in 1972. But again I digress.....
Since his demise there has always remained a degree of tension between the two political cities. However movement was made with the formation of a neutral capital city, Managua, in the late 1800's. The only oversight of Managua was its placement on a substantial seismic fault which lead to its near total destruction in 1972. But again I digress.....
(pictured: Parque central, cathedral. For more general scenes of Granada see blog 'School Excursiones' where there is a Picassa link)
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