Historic center of Managua
Old Managua or the Historic Center of Managua is the historic district of Managua located north of the Laguna de Tiscapa, and on the shores of Lake Managua. This is one of the best known places in the city, as it is the seat of most of the government buildings of the Government of Nicaragua. Administratively, it is part of district I, although it was previously part of district II, before the creation of two new districts for the municipality of Managua, and it is located near some neighborhoods known as the colonial Bolonia in the municipality of the city of Managua.. It is sometimes called the rubble, but rather that name is applied to the surroundings of the areas where there are old buildings that were destroyed during the 1972 earthquake. Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua according to simplyyellowpages.
History
The center of Managua continued to develop for many years, until it became the most prosperous city in the country, until on Saturday , December 23, 1972 at 00:35 hours, there was a strong earthquake in Managua that lasted 30 seconds with intensity 6, 2 degrees on the Richter scale whose epicenter was within Lake Xolotlán 2 kilometers northeast of the Managua Power Plant, located on the shores of said lake, causing the greatest destruction in the center of the capital, as the earthquake triggered the geological faults of Tiscapa, Los Bancos and Chico Pelón.´
Most of the houses that were in the old center, were houses built of taquezal, because after surviving the earthquake of the 1931 earthquake, the owners only “repaired” their walls but not their foundations, so they collapsed. Another of the structures that received serious damage was the Metropolitan Cathedral, today known as the Old Managua Cathedral, which was cracked by the earthquake, being disabled until today.
Other important buildings in the old urban area were the old Presidential House of the Loma de Tiscapa, in the Arab-style Tiscapa Lagoon, as well as the City Hall Palace partially collapsed because its bases were damaged by the earthquake in 1931, in which they were not repaired. The neighboring Palacio de La Curva, headquarters of the Chief Director of the GN National Guard, was also damaged and one of its two towers fell and was demolished.
The rectangular building of the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN) of 16 floors, at the intersection of Roosevelt Avenue and Southwest Fourth Street, was damaged, while on the opposite corner the 17-story Bank of America (BAMER), a lobby at the level of said avenue and two basements, resisted the earthquakes due to its anti-seismic system used in the state of California, United States, and today it is the headquarters of many offices of the National Assembly of Nicaragua, of concrete piles (concrete) very similar to the Latin American Tower in Mexico City. Opposite the north side of the Central Bank and the west side of BAMER, the 3-story National Bank of Nicaragua remained standing and today houses the National Assembly since 1985, although it is on top of said fault.
Other buildings in the old town to resist that earthquake were those of the National Institute of Social Security (INSS), the National Light and Power Company (ENALUF), the National Palace (headquarters of the Congress and which today is the Palace of the Culture), the Nicaraguan Bank (BANIC), the Hotel Intercontinental Managua (today Hotel Crowne Plaza), the Palace of Communications. The Night Club Plaza (which was previously the headquarters of the National Tourism Board and was located on the east side of Central Park, in the place where the tomb of Carlos Fonseca Amador, founder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) has been today since 1979.), collapsed killing several couples who danced there.
The San Miguel and Central markets suffered damage from the fire as well as the BANIC (today the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit), the First National City Bank of New York, the upper part of BAMER, the MacGregor House, etc. The La Florida Store, the Hotel Reisel and the La Colonia Supermarket, near the statue of Ramón Montoya, owned by the Mántica family, had one floor collapsed; some pavilions and buildings of the Central American University (UCA, of the Jesuit fathers) fell, although at that time it was outside the city.
Today, the Historic Center of Managua houses mainly unused land and large spaces for vehicle parking, located next to government buildings, due to the presence of geological faults. Such an urban layout gives Managua the appearance of an “empty city”, since it has large unbuilt areas. Debris from the December 23, 1972 earthquake can still be seen in the area.
Roosvelt or Augusto César Sandino Avenue
Officially known as the Paseo Peatonal Augusto C. Sandino or known as Avenida Roosevelt or Avenida del Comercio and to a lesser extent, as the old Avenida Central, it is a pedestrian avenue located in the historic center of Managua, Nicaragua from north to south. The avenue, which bears the name of the Nicaraguan “National Hero”, Augusto César Sandino, also known as “the general of free men”, was inaugurated by the full deputies of the National Assembly, after installing the XXVI legislative period.
During the opening ceremony of the new pedestrian promenade, relatives as well as Sandino and the poet Rubén Darío, known as “the Prince of Castilian Letters and Father of Modernism” attended. The pedestrian street has only 13 blocks and starts from the historic Loma de Tiscapa on the 9ª Calle Southeast in the old Monument to Roosevelt, now called the Monument to the Soldier or Plaza de los Not Alineados ending at the intersection with the 3ª Calle Southeast nearby. of the National Assembly building and the Plaza de La Revolución, a place where it was previously an obligatory reference that showed the rise of a modern city with advances typical of the time, but which, like its buildings and neighborhoods, were lost under a mountain of stones and irons on December 23, 1972.
