León

León, city, Spain

León, city (1990 pop. 137,758), capital of León prov., NW Spain, in Castile-León, at the foot of the Cantabrian Mts. and at the confluence of the Bernesga and Torio rivers. It is an agricultural and commercial center. Dating from Roman times, it was reconquered from the Moors in 882 by Alfonso III of Asturias. Early in the 10th cent., León replaced Oviedo as the capital of the kingdom of Asturias, which became the kingdom of León. The city flourished in the 12th and 13th cent. as a trade center but declined after the kings of León and Castile made Valladolid their favored residence. It still retains a medieval atmosphere, and its many historic monuments attract tourists. Most notable is the Spanish Gothic cathedral (13th–14th cent.).

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León, city, Mexico

León, city (1990 pop. 758,270), Guanajuato state, central Mexico. It is located in a fertile river valley c.5,600 ft (1,700 m) high, but with a mild, temperate climate. Frequent floods, which in 1888 almost washed the city away, necessitated the building of a protective dam. León, on the main rail line between El Paso, Tex., and Mexico City, is a commercial, agricultural, and mining center and one of Mexico's leading shoe manufacturers. The city's mines yield gold, copper, silver, lead, and tin. León was officially founded in 1577.

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León, city, Nicaragua

León, city (1995 pop. 125,117), W Nicaragua. It is Nicaragua's second largest city and the rail and commercial center between Corinto and Managua. It was founded in 1524 on Lake Managua by Francisco Fernández de Córdoba and moved west to its present site in 1610 after a severe earthquake. In colonial times, León was the Nicaragua's political hub. Center of the intellectuals and artisans, León became the stronghold of the liberal forces after independence from Spain (1821) and engaged in bitter rivalry with conservative Granada. Costly revolutions, in one of which León accepted aid from the U.S. filibuster William Walker, led to the founding of Managua (1855). The city is still the country's liberal center; it was heavily pro-Sandinista during the revolution against the Somoza dictatorship. The poet Rubén Darío is buried in its cathedral. Ash from the Cerro Negro volcano damaged the city in 1992.

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León, region and former kingdom, Spain

León (lā-ōn`), historic region and former kingdom, NW Spain, E of Portugal and Galicia, now part of Castile–León. It includes the provinces of León, Salamanca, and Zamora, named after their chief cities. It is sparsely populated, and the climate is harsh; winters are long and cold, and the summers are extremely hot and often accompanied by drought. Northern León, which is crossed by the Cantabrian Mts., has coal mines, forests, and mountain pastures; the rest of the region is a dry plateau drained by the Duero River and its tributaries. León has long been noted for its linen manufactures. Early in the Christian reconquest, the kings of Asturias gained control over León (8th–9th cent.); their territory, of which the city of León was made the capital in the 10th cent., became the kingdom of Asturias and León. The power of the kings also extended over Galicia and part of Castile, Navarre, and the Basque Province, but it was too weak to prevent the rise of the independent kingdoms of Navarre and Castile. León was conquered (1037) by Ferdinand I of Castile, on whose death (1065) the kingdoms again became separate. Reunited in 1072 under Alfonso VI, León and Castile were again separated in the 12th cent. and remained so until Ferdinand III accomplished the final reunion in 1230.

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León

City (pop., 2001: 130,916), northwestern Spain. The city began as the camp of a Roman legion; its name is derived from the Latin legio. Held by the Goths during the 6th and 7th centuries, it then fell to the Moors, who ruled it until 850. In the 10th century, it became the capital of the kingdom of Leon. An industrial as well as a tourist centre, its site includes medieval churches.

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León

City (pop., 1995: 123,865), western Nicaragua. The second largest city in Nicaragua, it is the country's political and intellectual centre. It was founded by the Spanish on the edge of Lake Managua in 1524; it was later destroyed by an earthquake and rebuilt in 1610 near the Pacific coast, northwest of Managua. León was the capital of Nicaragua until 1855. It has had a long political and commercial rivalry with the city of Granada. It is the burial place of poet and diplomat Rubén Darío and the seat of the University of León.