Nicaragua's radical heart — cathedral rooftops, volcano boarding, and indio viejo
León is Nicaragua's intellectual and revolutionary capital — the city where the Sandinista revolution was born and where murals of Che Guevara cover walls beside 18th-century cathedral facades that glow amber at sunset. The Cathedral of León is the largest in Central America and a UNESCO site; you can climb to the rooftop for a 360° view of 12 volcanoes. The local food is proudly Nicaraguan: nacatamal (pork and masa steamed in banana leaf), vigorón (yuca and chicharrón with cabbage slaw), and indio viejo (shredded beef in tomato-corn masa — the indigenous stew of the country).
León was founded by the Spanish in 1524 and served as Nicaragua's capital until 1852, when it lost the title to Managua following a civil war between Liberal León and Conservative Granada. The city became the cradle of Nicaraguan literature (Rubén Darío, considered the father of Spanish-language modernism, was born nearby) and of the 1979 Sandinista Revolution, which began here before spreading to Managua. The Cathedral of the Assumption, completed in 1860 after 113 years of construction, contains the tomb of Darío and remains the largest cathedral in Central America.