El Castillo (Nicaragua)
| El Castillo | |
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Coordinates: 11 ° 1 ′ N , 84 ° 24 ′ W
El Castillo on the map of Nicaragua
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| Basic data | |
| Country | Nicaragua |
| Department | Río San Juan |
| City foundation | 1672 |
| Residents | 19,864 (2005) |
| Detailed data | |
| surface | 1656 km 2 |
| Population density | 12 inhabitants / km 2 |
| Waters | Rio San Juan |
| Time zone | UTC −6 |
| City Presidency | Rito Jiménez, PLC |
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El Castillo is a town in the department of Río San Juan - the smallest department by population - in the southeast of the Central American state of Nicaragua .
geography
El Castillo is located on the right bank of the Río San Juan , which rises in Lake Nicaragua and flows into the Caribbean Sea . The city is located about 43 kilometers as the crow flies southeast of San Carlos, the capital of the department and about 250 kilometers southeast of the capital Managua . The size of the district is 1,656 km².
The climate is tropical and the annual rainfall varies between 2,800 and 4,000 mm. The mean annual temperature is around 25 ° C. El Castillo is surrounded by tropical rainforest and the humidity is therefore very high.
Directly at El Castillo, the Río San Juan has numerous rapids . The most powerful of them is called Raudal del Diablo (Devil's Rapids).
history
The founding of the city goes back to the construction of a fortress , which the Spanish conquistadors built on the banks of the Río San Juan in 1672 to protect the city of Granada on Lake Nicaragua from the constant raids of pirates and English ships. The Castillo de la Inmaculada Concepción , which gave the city its name ( Castillo means castle in Spanish ), is still the main attraction of the place today .
In 1762 the fortress was successfully defended against attempted conquest by English troops who had allied themselves with the Caribs .
In 1780, English expedition troops led by Horatio Nelson besieged the fort and after hard fighting they succeeded in taking the fortress on April 24th. Nelson was already on his way back to England at this point, as he was probably infected with yellow fever . The remaining, initially victorious British troops were also decimated by disease. They eventually had to pull out and the entire company failed.
population
The municipality ( municipality ) of El Castillo had census in 2005, according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y censos of Nicaragua 19,864 inhabitants, where 2,834 people were counted in the urban area of the municipality.
economy
In the past, the trade in tropical timber was of high economic importance for the city. Today the trade in agricultural products , especially corn and bananas , is an important source of income. In addition, certain cocoa is grown for export . In 2006, thanks to a loan from DEG to the Palcasa plantation company , large-scale palm plantations for the extraction of palm oil were revived and expanded.
controversy
Environmentalists like the Nicaraguan Saúl Obregón or the German organization Rettet den Regenwald eV and cooperatives of local cocoa farmers accuse Palcasa of not complying with environmental and social standards on their plantations. In the past, the cocoa farmers were supported by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ). A German consulting company commissioned by DEG confirmed many allegations in 2010, such as water pollution , illegal logging and oppression of the trade unions . The adjacent “Indio Maíz” biosphere reserve could also be at risk.
traffic
From outside the place (2011) can only be reached by small boats (locally called pangas ) on the Río San Juan. A boat trip from San Carlos takes about two hours. There are also boat connections downriver to Greytown / San Juan de Nicaragua and vice versa three times a week .
Attractions
The fortress El Castillo de la Inmaculada Concepción (completion: 1675) extends in a rectangular shape with its four corner towers - with the names Santa Bárbara , Santa Teresa , Santa Rosa and Santa Ana - over a length of 49 by 20 meters. The fortress is a historical landmark of Nicaragua, which currently houses a museum and library.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Weltsichten: Servant of two masters ( Memento of the original from August 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Web presentation of El Castillo de la Inmaculada Concepción
Web links
- Web presentation of El Castillo (Spanish)
- Data on El Castillo (Spanish) ( Memento from November 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Web representation of the fortress of El Castillo (Spanish)