Matagalpa

Matagalpa is the capital of Matagalpa department in the north-central highlands of Nicaragua and one of the country's principal coffee-producing centers. The city lies in a mountainous coffee zone settled in part by German immigrant families in the nineteenth century, whose descendants remained prominent in the regional coffee trade. Matagalpa was also a site of guerrilla activity and civilian resistance during the Nicaraguan Revolution, and it today serves as the commercial hub for the surrounding highland municipalities.