El Coyotepe Fortress
Hilltop fortress of 1893 above Masaya, later a political prison, now kept by the Nicaraguan Scouts.
The fortress crowns the Coyotepe hill just north of Masaya, a position commanding the road and the railway that ran from Corinto through Masaya to Granada. It was completed in 1893 under President José Santos Zelaya as a strongpoint against attack from the south, and its heavy masonry walls, four corner towers and vaulted galleries give it a deliberately archaic, half-medieval appearance. From the one tower with a stair there are views over the town, the Masaya lagoon and the Masaya and Mombacho volcanoes.
The hill saw fighting in 1912, when government and United States forces stormed it during the rising led by Benjamín Zeledón, and again during later conflicts. In the twentieth century the vaults beneath the courtyard were used as a prison, and the cells, some of them windowless, are the part of the visit most often remembered. In 1964 President René Schick handed the fortress and its land to the Nicaraguan Scout Association, which still maintains the site and guides visitors through the galleries and cells.
Highlights
- Masonry fortress of 1893 with four corner towers
- Underground cells used as a prison in the twentieth century
- Views over Masaya lagoon and the Masaya and Mombacho volcanoes
- Maintained since 1964 by the Nicaraguan Scout Association
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