Hernandez de Cordoba founded the first city of Leon in 1524 on the shore of Lake Managua, and what remains of it are the foundations of a Spanish colonial town sunk in a dry, hot plain under the cone of Momotombo. The volcano is the great feature of the landscape, a near-perfect cone that rises across the water and sometimes sends up a plume of steam. Its eruptions and a series of earthquakes made the site dangerous, and in 1610 the inhabitants abandoned it and rebuilt the city further west, where Leon stands now. Archaeologists excavated the old town from the 1960s, and the ruins of the plaza, the cathedral, the convents and the governor's house now lie in neat rows of low stone walls.
Hernandez de Cordoba was executed here in 1526 on the orders of Pedrarias Davila, the governor, who had come to suspect him of disloyalty. The story is one of the grim episodes of the Spanish conquest, and Pedrarias ruled the province harshly until his death in 1531, and the ruins are a place to think about what Spanish rule meant for the people who lived here.
The ride from Managua is straightforward. The highway to Leon runs northwest across a flat, dusty plain, and the turn to the ruins is just beyond La Paz Centro, a town of potters known for its clay oven-fired ceramics and its quesillo, a soft cheese wrapped in a tortilla. The last stretch is on a smaller road through fields, and the surface can be rough. Traffic is a mix of trucks, buses, horse-drawn carts and bicycles, and speed limits are loosely observed. Heat is intense, particularly from March to May, and afternoon storms arrive in the wet season.
Fuel is available in La Paz Centro and Nagarote, about nine and sixteen kilometres away, and food is simple and cheap: gallo pinto, grilled meat, fresh tortillas and fruit juices. The site has a small museum and visitors can walk among the ruins in an hour. Bring water and a hat, as shade is scarce. The best time is the dry season, from December to April, and the light is lovely in the late afternoon.