Churches of León Part III

I'll start off with a side note: this is the 101st blog post I've made. I was thinking about mentioning that in my 100th post, but that one was more serious. I'm happy to have made it that far, and thanks to all of the readers and commenters for keeping me going.

And so we return to the grand churches of Leon, Nicaragua. Next in the lineup, we have Iglesia La Merced. This one is named after the patron saint of Leon, La Virgen de la Merced. Back in September, I posted a little bit about the festival for this saint. This is obviously an important church downtown, quite nice looking, and among the ones connected by tunnels.


Continuing along, we have la Iglesia San Juan. This one has seen better days. It's located near one of the largest markets in Leon as well as a nice park, so it's got some good things going for it. I'm not really sure if this is connected to the tunnel system; it's possible, but I got mixed results when I asked about it.


And lastly, we have la Iglesia Sutiaba. This is located in the neighborhood of Sutiaba, which was the indigenous settlement where Leon was relocated to after the original Leon was destroyed, most likely by the combination of an earthquake and eruption of the volcano Momotombo. The front of this church is quite large and imposing, but when you look at it from the side, it's not quite as intimidating. This one is also connected by tunnels, and everyone agrees on that because they say it required the longest tunnel, a distance of 1.2 kilometers (or at least I think that's the distance, it might be a bit longer). That gives you an idea of how many churches are in such a small radius..and that's just the Catholic churches...and only the ones that are possibly connected by tunnels.
Front View:Side View:
And so concludes our segment on churches of Leon connected by tunnels. There is still at least one other church I'll post about that isn't connected, but worth mentioning for other reasons. Stay tuned. But not too tuned; I know it's exciting, but don't sit there continuously hitting Refresh because it might take a couple days. Today is my last complete day in Leon, and tomorrow I return to the US.