UNESCO World Heritage Site #6 – Leon Viejo

Leon Viejo is my 6th UNESCO World Heritage Site visited since the start of this website. It is also the only UNESCO site in all of Nicaragua (which is crazy to me with Granada, the oldest colonial city in Central America located just to the south). Leon Viejo was one of the first Spanish settlements in the new world, and it did not develop much past the initial settlement stages leaving behind a storied past of the Spanish encounters with the native inhabitants. This is one of the few sites providing insight into the early settlement stages as many cities were built up over and over again leaving no sign of the initial contact and settlement of the land. There is not a lot to see at Leon Viejo as most of the ruins are simply the walls of buildings standing only about a meter tall. The history behind the place, however, is quite interesting, and if you are in the area it is definitely worth the $2 entry fee to do a little exploring. If you’d like more information on Leon Viejo you can read the official description from the UNESCO website here.

Click here for a complete list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites I’ve visited.