Granada Cathedral

Visiting Granada, one of the many unmissable gems of any holiday to Nicaragua, it doesn’t matter how bad your sense of direction is or how prone you are to getting lost: regardless of where you find yourself in this beautiful, colonial-era town, simply look up and you will soon spot the bell towers and vast dome of Granada Cathedral.

Located on the east side of Parque Central, the Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral dates back to the early-16^th century although the building that stands proud – and slightly loud – over town today is a much more recent construct.

The original cathedral is said to have been built in 1525 and yet, by 1578, the building had already been badly damaged on two separate occasions by marauding pirates.

The second version of Granada Cathedral was completed in 1751 and managed to survive over one hundred years until it too was destroyed, this time on the instructions of American adventurer and general bad egg, William Walker. His original home in Granada is no more than 100 metres from the cathedral.

The foundation stone for the final, present day cathedral was laid in 1880 although exterior work wasn’t completed until 1916 and some interior work until 1972!

Quite apart from standing out because of its size, in what is otherwise an overwhelmingly low-rise town, it is also hard to miss any large building that is painted bright yellow and topped out with red roof tiles.

Entering the cathedral (and it’s often not open), its interior might come as something of a surprise, lacking the ornate, often maximalist decoration of many of Granada’s nearby churches. By contrast, Granada Cathedral is largely painted white. Decoration comes from the beautifully tiled, central aisle, blue mosaic altar and ceiling artwork.

All our featured hotels in Granada are within easy walk of the cathedral with the Hotel Plaza Colon being located on the opposite side of Parque Central and boasting balcony rooms overlooking the square.