Hotel El Convento

The San Francisco Convent was founded in the city of León in 1639 by the Reverend
Brother Pedro de Zúñiga. It was the first convent in the city.

On 7th September 1829 a government decree was issued which ended the recognition
of religious orders, forcing the Franciscan Brothers to leave Nicaragua. In 1830, it was
decreed that convent or monastery buildings should be used as educational
establishments or for public benefit.

The first school to be opened under this decree
was the Lancastrian School, founded on the site of
the convent in 1854 by Doctor Gregorio Juárez.
Years later, the building was abandoned as funds
for maintenance of the school dried up and it
became the home of beggars and the homeless.

The building remained in this state until 1881,
when the Instituto Nacional de Occidente was
opened. Several European professors worked
there, amongst them, Joseph Leonard, a Polish
man who introduced Freemasonry to Nicaragua
and was a significant influence on the poet Rubén
Darío. In 1892 the Instituto Nacional de Occidente
moved to another site, leaving the building for the
Reverend Mothers of the Assumption. In 1896
there were a lot of disturbances in the city following the reelection of General José
Zelaya López. Government troops were billeted in the ex-convent and the buildings
suffered serious structural damage.

On 29th April 1898 the area was damaged in an earthquake, forcing the Reverend
Mothers of the Assmuption to move to the Episcopal Palace, next door to what is
today La Asunción School. The site was subsequently occupied by the Instituto Azarías
H. Pallais, which was demolished in 1972. And finally during the war in the 1980s
bombings destroyed what little was left of the original structure.

In 1995 the Hotel El Convento
project began with the
purchase of the site. The
construction followed a design
which sought to respect the
architectural and colonial
features of the building at the
time of the San Francisco
convent and the Instituto
Nacional de Occidente, as well as
incorporating the requirements
of a modern hotel. Thanks to
photographs and accounts from citizens of León this historic landmark which has
housed many important figures from Nicaragua's history has been saved.

Hotel El Convento was officially opened on 6th December 2000, becoming the top
hotel in León offiering the very best in quality and service.