Matagalpa
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Matagalpa is a city in Nicaragua, the capital city of the department of Matagalpa. The city has a population of 109,100 (2005 census), meanwhile the population of the department is 480,000.
[edit] Origin of the name
According to the Matagalpan linguist father Guillermo Kiene, a Catholic missionary priest living 1898-1959, who was the son of a German immigrant, the word Matagalpa comes from the Sumo language, and means "Let's go where the rocks are."
[edit] History
Matagalpa was an Indian town founded by the Spaniards in 1554 when they were looking for a water passage to the Northern Sea, the Caribbean. (Because Nicaragua was colonized starting from the Pacific coast, and the Pacific Ocean was termed the Southern Sea by the Spaniards, the Caribbean was known as Northern.) The Matagalpa Indians had their own language, but it has been considered extinct since 1875. A document with 97 words from the Matagalpa language can be found in the Daniel G. Brinton section of the American Philosophical Library in Philadelphia. Gold was discovered at the mines of Matagalpa by 1850. It attracted some foreigners like the Englishman Richard Painter (1851), Germans like Ludwig Elster (1852) and Leopold Wassmer (1854), Bavarian Captain Hans Fischer, Americans like Mr. Williams, Elijah Rupert Macy (1858), doctor James Sigo (1852), and Frenchmen like Georges Choiseul Praslin (1852), Charles Leclaire (1875). Ludwig Elster (from Hannover) and his wife Katharina Braun (from the Black Forest) planted the first coffee trees in the area, beans which soon found good market in Germany. Coffee business attracted more than 120 foreign immigrants, most of whom married Matagalpan women. Their descendants still live in the area, and surnames such as Eger, Bernard, Smith, Haslam, Richardson, Weimer, Alm, Vogl, Kühl, Uebersezig, Hayn, McEwan, Stultzer, Kollerbohn, Hawkins, Rourk, Haar, Travers, Kraudy, Vita, Zeyss, Frauenberger, etc. are still found. Matagalpa was the city of refuge of Nicaraguan patriots when the Tennessean filibuster William Walker took over most of the country in 1856. The patriots organized in Matagalpa the so-called "Ejercito del Septentrion", or Army of the North, which won the Battle of San Jacinto September 14th, 1856, helping to end Walker's dominion in Nicaragua. Matagalpa was the cradle of Nazario Vega, Governor and Constructor of the Cathedral; Bartolome Martinez, President of Nicaragua, 1923-24, and Carlos Fonseca Amador, founder of the Sandinista Front in 1961. Up to now Matagalpa is the second most populated department of Nicaragua (Managua, the capital is first), and the most diversified in production.
[edit] Economy
Matagalpa is known for its good quality coffee, its cattle, milk products, vegetables, flowers and mountains for ecotourism. It is the location of storied mountain tourist resorts like Aranjuez, Santa Maria de Ostuma, and Selva Negra Mountain Resort.
