National Historical and Cultural Heritage and World Heritage

The city of Lion of Imabite (known as León de Nagrando) was founded in 1524 by the conquest captain Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, under the orders of Pedro Arias Dávila (Pedrarias), governor of Darién in Panama. It was christened León in allusion to the homonymous city in Spain and was designated the capital of the Province of Nicaragua.

The area was inhabited by the pre-Columbian Chorotega group, specifically the Nagrandan tribe, settled on the shores of Lake Xolotlán. Their main center was the town of Imabite, where the Spanish conquistadors built their first homes following the native model of thatch and straw huts.

The city's buildings were constructed with indigenous labor following Spanish architecture of the time, which developed in two stages:

• Primitive Thatched huts and reed huts.
• Definitive Brick walls and clay tile roofs.

The city was inhabited for 86 years until its abandonment in 1610, motivated by:

• Economic decline due to a lack of indigenous labor.
• The scarcity of trade following the depletion of gold in the Segovia mines.
• The frequent earthquakes caused by the Momotombo volcano, which culminated in the earthquake of that year.

After the disaster, the inhabitants moved north, alongside the indigenous town of Sutiava, where the current city of León is located. The ruins were discovered in 1967 by researchers from UNAN-León, led by Dr. Alfonso Argüello Argüello. In 1994, the site was declared National Historical and Cultural Heritage, and in the year 2000, World Heritage.