Estelí (), officially Villa de San Antonio de Pavia de Estelí is a city and
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
within the
Estelí department
Estelí () is a department of Nicaragua. It covers an area of and has a population of 230,953 (2021 estimate). Its capital is the city of Estelí.
Municipalities
# Condega
# Estelí
# La Trinidad
# Pueblo Nuevo
# San Juan de Limay
# Sa ...
. It is the 8th largest city in
Nicaragua
Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
due to the high urbanization of its municipality, at 84.8%, with an urban population of 111,244 (2022 estimate). It is also the eighth-largest municipality, and an active commercial center in the north, known as "the Diamond of the Segovia" (this name being created by Oscar Corea Molina in his radio show "Trampolin 43”) and the de facto capital of the north.
Located on the
Pan-American Highway
The Pan-American Highway is a vast network of roads that stretches about 30,000 kilometers (about 19,000 miles) from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in the northernmost part of North America to Ushuaia, Argentina, at the southern tip of South America. I ...
, 150 km north of
Managua
Managua () is the capital city, capital and largest city of Nicaragua, and one of the List of largest cities in Central America, largest cities in Central America. Located on the shores of Lake Managua, the city had an estimated population of 1, ...
, Estelí is a fast-growing and progressive city. It enjoys a pleasant climate most of the year due to its location in the north central highlands at a mean elevation of 844 m (2769 ft) above sea level. The city is also surrounded by forested mountains of pines, oaks, and walnuts, and plateaus up to 1600 m above sea level, some of which are protected as natural reserves.
History
The first settlement of what would become the City of Esteli occurred in Villa Vieja in 1685. It was founded by a group of Spaniards fleeing Nueva Segovia which at that time suffered from pirate attacks. Villa Vieja was then replaced by a new settlement (San Antonio de Pavia) from where the city of Esteli has grown. Today there is evidence of the first church in the Villa Vieja sector of the city.
The town is described in 1858 as "a little town in a small plain through which winds the river of the same name..." It is described as having a grist-mill and that "the country produces considerable wheat of medium quality."
Esteli was described in 1920 as having 8,000 inhabitants and as being a rich and growing center.
Estelí was the scene of heavy fighting in the civil war against the
Somoza government from 1978 to 1979. The city was heavily air-bombed by the regime's National Guard and burnt by the
FSLN
The Sandinista National Liberation Front (, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistan ...
guerrillas, which reduced many of the city's buildings to rubble. The human casualties were around 15,000; many of them were youths massacred on suspicion of being part of the insurrection due to the infiltration of anti-government guerillas from the Pacific of Nicaragua whom used the city as a war theater. Estelí rebuilt all but some structures, such as the Teatro Montenegro and the Government Palace, and a few may still show bullet holes.
Economy and tourism

The land around Estelí is perfect for growing tobacco for use in
cigars
A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binde ...
, and the town became a refuge for
Cuban cigar
Cuban cigars are cigars manufactured in Cuba from tobacco grown within that island nation. Historically regarded as among the world's "finest", they are synonymous with the island's culture and contribute over one quarter of the value of all expo ...
makers after the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...
in 1959. Award-winning cigars have made Estelí one of the most important
cigar
A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and Fermentation, fermented tobacco leaves made to be Tobacco smoking, smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct comp ...
-producing cities in the world. Estelí also has many
language schools. Restaurants and hotels cater to tourists traveling to nearby natural reserves and other parts of the region. Natural Reserves around the area include
Miraflor,
Tisey-Estanzuela,
Las Brisas-Quiabuc, Tomabú, Tepesomoto, and Moropotente.
According to the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
and
International Finance Corporation
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C. and a member of the World Bank Group that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private ...
's Municipal Scorecard 2008, which complements the annual Doing Business report, the municipality of Estelí ranks 1st and 2nd, out of 143 municipalities in ten Latin American countries, in quality and efficiency to obtain a
construction permit
Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions.
House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...
and municipal operating license respectively. Esteli has improved its performance from the Municipal Scorecard 2007, where it ranked 5th out of 65 municipalities in five countries.
Infrastructure
Estelí has the best water supply system in the country with near-full population coverage. It also has extensive sewage disposal coverage.
At least three airfields have been built in Esteli throughout history, although none exists today. One of the first airfields documented played the role of alternate airport from 1930 to 1934 when
TACA established the service to carry passengers with an El Salvador-Tegucigalpa-Danli-Ocotal-Esteli-Managua route. La Thompson, which is three miles north of Estelí, is where the second airstrip was built and used by a company named "Thonsson Corwell" to help complete a stretch of the
Pan-American Highway
The Pan-American Highway is a vast network of roads that stretches about 30,000 kilometers (about 19,000 miles) from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in the northernmost part of North America to Ushuaia, Argentina, at the southern tip of South America. I ...
. The third airfield was built in the north end of town in the 1980s but has now been urbanized.
In 1950 there was a proposal to create a railroad branch from Esteli to Matagalpa which would eventually connect the city to other parts of the country including Prinzapolka Port in the Caribbean and Managua.
In 1940 efforts were made to expand
Nicaragua's railroad from El Sauce to the north via Estelí. Thirteen kilometers of rail, the town of Río Grande, and
railroad bridgewere built with the intention of taking the rail up to Esteli along the Aquespalapa or Villanueva river, which originates in the Quiabuc mountains; however, the project was abandoned.
Sports
Estelí is home to one of the most successful and most popular
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
clubs in the country, the
Real Estelí, nicknamed "El Tren del Norte" ("The Train of the North"). They play their home games at the
Estadio Independencia, a name created by Oscar Corea Molina.
Real Estelí Baloncesto
Real Estelí Baloncesto is a Nicaraguan basketball team based in Managua. Founded in 2018, it is the basketball section of the Real Estelí FC football club, which was founded in 1959. The team entered the Liga Superior de Baloncesto (LSB) for i ...
plays in the
Basketball Champions League Americas
The Basketball Champions League Americas (BCLA) ( Spanish: ''Liga de Campeones de Baloncesto de las Américas'', Portuguese: ''Liga dos Campeões de Basquetebol das Américas'') is Pan-America's premier men's basketball club competition. Found ...
.
It is also home to a professional baseball team, Estelí, which makes it one of only three cities in the country with both a professional football (soccer) and baseball team. During the 1970s, Estelí participated in the "
Roberto Clemente
Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker (; August 18, 1934 – December 31, 1972) was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, primarily as a right fielder. On December ...
" baseball tournament and had one of the best baseball teams in the country with the help of one-time big league players like
Porfi Altamirano and Albert Williams.
Estelí also counts on a championship-winning professional cycling team called Real Estelí Ciclismo, which is member of the Cycling Federation of Nicaragua. In May 2019, Real Estelí won first place in the Elite group of the Europa Tour 2019 cycling competition in San Salvador, El Salvador, hosted by the Cycling Federation of El Salvador.
The team also won second place in the Master B category.
Gastronomy
Due to its altitude Estelí can be quite chilly at night or in the morning and even cold in winter. Thus, like all northern mountainous regions of Nicaragua, Estelí's gastronomy consists of a hearty mountain diet of beef, game, veal, rabbit, geese, sausages, and heavy soups like albóndiga, queso, res, etc. There's a high consumption of milk products like smoked or spicy cheeses like ahumado and picante, and regional corn-based dishes like delicious montucas, salty-sour repochetas, and semi-sweet güirilas. For breakfast, chorizo,
refried beans, sour cream, and home-made style bread are more common and black coffee is the king of drinks any time of the day. Though illegal,
cususa (a clear alcoholic drink) is also consumed, especially on the outskirts of the city or in small cantinas (bars).
Notable people
*
Pedro X. Molina, award-winning cartoonist
*
Ramón Otoniel Olivas, Nicaraguan international footballer and
national team
A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport.
The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...
manager
*
Frank Pineda, filmmaker and producer
*
Widman Talavera, footballer
*
Clara Isabel Alegría Vides, poet
International relations
Twin towns – Sister cities
Estelí is twinned with:
In Sheffield, a section of the promenade alongside the
River Don in
Sheffield City Centre
Sheffield City Centre (referred to locally as simply Town) is a district of the Sheffield, City of Sheffield and is covered partly by the City ward, Sheffield, City ward of the City of Sheffield. It includes the area that is within a radius of ...
is named ''Estelí Parade''.
Gallery
File:Tomabú.jpg, Tomabú hill with a height of 1,445 meters, it is covered with pine forests.
File:Tabacoo.jpg, Some of the tobacco fields that are common north of town.
File:03shavi garnacha01.jpg, Apaguajil Hill, Tisey - Estanzuela Nature Reserve.
File:La-cascada.jpg, Waterfall in Miraflor Nature Reserve.
File:El Salto la Estanzuela.jpg, Salto Estanzuela (Estanzuela waterfall) located in the Tisey-Estanzuela Natural Reserve just south of town.
File:Jalacate Esculturas en piedra 2.jpg, Jalacate Sculptures just outside town.
File:Catedral de Estelí de noche.jpg, Cathedral at night
File:South End of Esteli.jpg, South end of Estelí looking towards Las Brisas-Quiabuc Natural Reserve
File:Catedral Nuestra Señora del Rosario. Estelí, Nicaragua.jpg, Nuestra Señora del Rosario Cathedral
File:Esteli Cathedral.jpg, Nuestra Señora del Rosario Cathedral
File:Cine esteli.jpg, Esteli Cinema (Closed), near the Central Park
File:Arcos Hotel.jpg, Los Arcos Hotel
File:Colegio NSR.jpg, Colegio Nuestra Señora del Rosario
File:SALTO ESTANZUELA NICARAGUA.jpg, Salto Estanzuela (Estanzuela waterfall) located in the Tisey-Estanzuela Natural Reserve just south of town
File:Rappel estanzuela.jpg, Rappelling down el Salto de la Estanzuela
File:Perdomo Factory Esteli Nicaragua.jpg, Perdomo Cigar Factory
File:Cigar Factory Esteli Nicaragua.jpg, Cigar Factory
File:Matapalo Tree Miraflor, Esteli.jpg, Matapalo Tree in Miraflor Nature Reserve
File:Waterfall, Miraflor Esteli Nicaragua.jpg, Waterfall in Miraflor Nature Reserve
File:Neblina del Bosque Esteli Nicaragua.jpg, Neblina del Bosque, Miraflor Nature Reserve
References
External links
Petroglifos de Esteli, Nicsragua - www.esteli.infoNorte de Nicaragua
{{DEFAULTSORT:Esteli
Municipalities of the Estelí Department