León Cathedral

The largest cathedral in Central America, whose gleaming white roof of domes can be walked on.

The Guatemalan architect Diego José de Porres Esquivel drew the plans in 1762. The building blends Baroque and Neoclassical styles with touches of Gothic, Renaissance and Mudéjar, so it is often called eclectic. It stands on a rectangular plan with a nave and four aisles, ten arched bays and two towers on the front. Its strong walls have survived earthquakes, volcanic eruptions of Cerro Negro, and wars.

Built to last

The cathedral has seven cellars that help steady it in earthquakes, and seven tunnels are said to lead from beneath it to other churches in the city. Above ground, 34 domes let in air and light, so it is one of the best naturally lit cathedrals in the Americas. The towers carry round, Chinese-style domes, and the front rises on a terrace. People could even pay to be buried below, which helped fund the building and its upkeep.

A resting place of poets and bishops

The cathedral is the seat of the oldest diocese in Nicaragua, founded in 1531, one of the oldest in the Americas. In the crypts rest the remains of 27 people, including bishops, priests, an independence leader, poets and a musician. The best known is Rubén Darío, the father of Modernism in Spanish-language poetry. His tomb has a lion statue at its foot, and the sculptor Jorge Navas also made the statues of the Twelve Apostles inside.

Art inside

UNESCO describes the cathedral as showing the move from Baroque to Neoclassical architecture, with a plain interior and lots of natural light. The vault of the sanctuary has rich decoration. Inside are a Flemish altar and paintings of the 14 Stations of the Cross by the Nicaraguan artist Antonio Sarria. The cathedral is also said to keep a splinter of the cross on which Jesus died.

On the globe

The model shows the cathedral with its white domes and two towers.