Sunday, October 15, 2006

The oldest city in Latin America


Granada, founded in 1524, is the oldest inhabited city in continental Latin America, and claims to be the most beautiful of Nicaragua's two major cities, the other contender to the title is its liberal, laid-back rival Léon.

It has 17th-century adobe houses, crumbling courtyard gardens and elaborate Italianate villas. Granada's wealth and the generation of criollos (people of Spanish descent born in the New World who made it their home) contribute to its conservative character.

Like Antigua in Guatemala, Granada is walkable, with arresting architecture and an incredible backdrop of Lake Nicaragua. The town is beginning to develop facilities for more upmarket travellers too, with the opening of elegant boutique hotels like the Colonial.
Read more about Granada.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Depending of what you call Latin America. If you include Puerto Rico in the mix, San Juan or as it was called when founded in 1521, "Ciudad de Puerto Rico," is the oldest city in Latin America.

Anonymous said...

The OLDEST city founded by European conquests in ALL America Continent is SANTO DOMINGO, founded August 4, 1496 and actually is recognized by UNESCO! Santo Domingo is the actual capital of the Dominican Republic.

Anonymous said...

Originally the Oldest city was "La Nueva Isabela"... later renamed as Santo Domingo.

Santo Domingo was destroyed by a hurricane in 1502, and the new Governor Nicolás de Ovando had it rebuilt on a different site nearby.

We could say that because of this "technicality", Puerto Rico became the oldest city in Latin America.

Anonymous said...

the city of Caral, Peru was founded 2627BC. Also the city of cuzco or at that time the kingdom of cuzco in peru was founded by the inca Manco Capac in the 1200!!!!!

wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_civilization

The Inca civilization (or Inka) began as a tribe in the Cuzco area, where the legendary first Sapa Inca, Manco Capac, founded the Kingdom of Cuzco around 1200. Under the leadership of the descendants of Manco Capac, the Inca state grew to absorb other Andean communities. In 1442, the Incas began a far-reaching expansion under the command of Pachacutec. He founded the Inca Empire or Tahuantinsuyo, which became the largest empire in pre-Columbian America

Julian said...

If you mean the oldest cities founded by europeans, and actually santo domingo would be that one. But the oldest city continually inhabbitted in america would be México city or Cholula

Anonymous said...

Lol! Your argument makes no sense. Many cities around the world have been affected by natural disasters. Santo Domingo is the Oldest.

Anonymous said...

According to Wikipedia, these are the oldest dates of foundation by the Europeans:

Santo Domingo, 1496
San Juan, 1508
Nombre de Dios, Panama, 1510
Baracoa, Cuba, 1511
Havana, Cuba, 1519
Veracruz, Mexico, 1519
Panama City, Panama, 1519
Mexico City, Mexico, 1521. But for Mexico City 1521 was the date of European conquest of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. Those two Aztec cities date to 1325 and 1337 respectively.