I had a full day tour from Managua to visit two Nicaraguan World Heritage Sites, the two Leon. After ending the morning tour in Leon Viejo at 10 AM, my guide’s original plan was local market then having lunch before the cathedral visit, but he got a warning phone call from his company that, the cathedral will be closed for the whole afternoon for certain ceremony, so he hurriedly took me to see cathedral at 11 AM before noon. The first thing we had to do was to secure the entrance ticket. The ticket booth was in the small hard to find entrance at the back of the cathedral opposite the local market, that in my opinion who on earth is going to notice this place! Then my guide rushed me to another entrance at bell tower and took me to see the famous roof.

After took off my shoes, the sight of the sparking white painted roof, domes, spires, and bell towers was indeed very beautiful, it was like walking in the snow-covered garden on summer! so bright that sunglass was mandatory. Then I walked to the top level of the roof, which in my opinion also nice but I would prefer the lower level, to see the view of the city of Leon from the roof which also was very fine. Then we went down to see the cathedral interior. The first thing I noticed was the natural light inside was really good despite the main door was closed. I could see all details without extra electricity lights. In my opinion the interior was a good mix of Baroque and neo classical styles which made the cathedral a bit plain since it was like typical churches that tried to decorate in traditional way. My guide explained a bit more on the tomb of famous poet Ruben Dario and the wooden El Cristo Negro de Pedrarias statue, possibly the oldest Catholic image in the Americas, brought here from Spain in 1528. I also find the ventilation inside the cathedral was top notch then my guide told me that the coolness inside the cathedral was the result of the underneath tunnel complex that now used as wine cellars. The tunnels also provided stability in earthquakes which made me really impressed and started to view this cathedral as a jewel of engineering.

After being politely asked to end the sightseeing by cathedral caretaker at noon, my guide took me to see the front façade from the front square. The proportion of wide façade with low towers was truly outstanding, something that hard to achieve. We ended the cathedral tour with the famous lion statues, the symbol of Leon. At first, I had no idea on this cathedral’s outstanding universal value, but after witnessed the obviously perfect natural light and ventilation system, genuine design and super delicious nacatamales with good local coffee from the restaurant next to the cathedral, I really enjoyed this short but really nice time to see this World Heritage Site.