Granada

The Spanish conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba founded Granada in 1524 on land with a large Indigenous population, naming it after the Andalusian city whose capture had completed the Reconquista. It has long claimed to be among the first European cities on the American mainland. Through Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan River it traded directly with the Atlantic, grew rich on commerce, and drew attacks from English, French and Dutch pirates. The first cathedral, of stone, brick and a straw roof, went up around 1525 and had burned twice by 1578.

For generations Granada, favoured by the Conservatives, fought León, the city of the Liberals, for control of Nicaragua, and the quarrel turned violent more than once; in the mid-19th century Managua, between the two, was chosen as the capital. Around 1850 Granada had about 10,000 people. In the war of the 1850s the American filibuster William Walker made the city his residence, and when his forces retreated in 1856 his general Charles Frederick Henningsen set it on fire, destroying much of the colonial town and leaving an inscription reading "Here was Granada" in the ruins.

Granada was rebuilt and escaped much of the fighting of the Sandinista era, but its buildings and streets decayed during the economic collapse of the 1980s. Restoration began in the following decades with Spanish government help. A property boom brought foreign buyers until it slowed in 2007, and after the 2018 protests the US government issued a travel advisory.

Granada's nickname, La Gran Sultana, refers to an Andalusian, even Moorish, look that sets it apart from León's more Castilian style: low colonial houses painted in strong colours and built around shaded courtyards. Six main churches anchor the town, and the cathedral's yellow front on the central park is its emblem.

The city sees itself as a cultural capital. Its International Poetry Festival, held every year since 2005, brings poets from many countries and has earned Granada the title of the Paris of Central America, and UNESCO has named it a Creative City of Design. The hípica, a parade of horses and riders, is one of its best-known fiestas, and the lakeside beaches fill during Holy Week.

Like the rest of the Pacific, Granada is Spanish-speaking, Catholic and largely mestizo, with a conservative reputation that dates back to its old rivalry with León. It also has a foreign community from the United States, Canada and much of Europe, many of whom bought and restored colonial houses during the boom years.

An estimated 106,000 people lived in the city in 2022, making it the ninth-largest in Nicaragua and the capital of Granada department. It has a long history of trade, once in timber, gold and silver, and today the economy depends heavily on tourism, alongside farms in the surrounding municipality that grow organic coffee and cacao, plantains and bananas and raise cattle.

Most Granadans live outside the restored blocks around the central park, in the plainer streets that spread west and south of the colonial core, and they shop at the crowded central market and the supermarkets rather than on La Calzada. The climate shapes the day: business starts early, the streets go quiet in the midday heat, and families sit outside their doors in the evening.

Since 2018 tourism has been much less reliable than in the boom years, and the foreign buying that drove up property prices had already slowed in 2007. As across Nicaragua, many families rely on relatives working abroad, and people tend to be careful about what they say in public.

Granada's signature is vigorón, a dish found across the country but claimed by this city: boiled cassava (yuca) topped with chicharrón, crisp fried pork rind, and a sharp salad of cabbage, tomato and onion, served on a plantain leaf. Kiosks in the central park sell it, and it is eaten on the park benches.

The lake supplies the fish. Guapote and mojarra, both caught by local fishermen, are usually fried whole and served with tostones, fried green plantain. The everyday plates of the comedores are the national ones: gallo pinto, rice and beans fried together, with soft cuajada cheese, eggs and tortillas at breakfast, and nacatamales, large banana-leaf parcels of maize dough and pork, at weekends.

The central market's stands sell sweet, cold drinks made from cacao with milk, linseed or beetroot, alongside fresh fruit frescos and pinolillo, the toasted maize and cacao drink. The restaurants along La Calzada and around the centre mix local and international flavours, and some work with local growers and producers. Toña and Victoria beers and Flor de Caña rum are the standard drinks in the bars.