Matagalpa

Matagalpa was founded by the Spaniards in 1554 during the period of trying to find a water passage passage to the "Northern Sea", the Caribbean. (Nicaragua's Spanish colonization began on the Pacific coast and the Pacific Ocean was termed the Southern Sea by the Spaniards, the Caribbean was known as Northern).

Matagalpa is located in the "Continental Divide" between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Many stories are preserved from the Colonial times, about the British controlled Mosquito Coast, and the Spanish-colonized Pacific Range.

Gold was discovered around Matagalpa by 1850. Along with many Spaniards and Mestizo, it attracted some foreigners. Some of the better known immigrants of this period were Ludwig Elster (from Hannover) and his wife Katharina Braun (from the Black Forest) who planted the first coffee trees in the area of which the beans soon found good market in Germany. Coffee agriculture attracted more than 120 foreign immigrants, many of whom married Matagalpan women and many of their descendants still live in the area.

Matagalpa was also the city of refuge for many Nicaraguans escaping the invasion of Tennesseean filibuster William Walker who took over much of the country and government in 1856. In Matagalpa the patriots organized the "Ejercito del Septentrion", or Army of the North, that fought in and won the Battle of San Jacinto September 14th, 1856, helping to end Walker's dominion in Nicaragua.

Matagalpa was also the birthplace of Nazario Vega, Governor and Constructor of the Cathedral; Bartolome Martinez, President of Nicaragua, 1923-24, and Carlos Fonseca Amador, founder of the Sandinista Front in 1961.

Currently Matagalpa is the second most populated department of Nicaragua (Managua, the capital is first), and the most diversified in production. Over the past few years Matagalpa has beenrecently expereinced a large influx of migrants (mainly campesinos) from the outer provinces causing a stress on infrastructure and the environment.

Matagalpa has a beautiful panoramic highway that starts in the city of Matagalpa and extends 30 kilometers to the city of Jinotega. The view from Jinotega reaches up to 140 kilometers away up to the volcanic range by the Pacific.

Many historians, archeologists, botanists, ethnologists have arrived in recent years to do research in this region. American and European descendants of these first settlers also are coming back to visit the historical homes of their ancestors.