The Old Cathedral of Managua, also called the Catedral de Santiago, was designed by Belgian architects, and the Belgian engineer Pablo Dambach oversaw construction. It was built from 1928 to 1938 in a Neoclassical style, reportedly inspired by the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. The iron framing of the core was shipped directly from Belgium.
The cathedral survived the 1931 earthquake because only its iron core had been erected by then. The 1972 Nicaragua earthquake heavily damaged it. It was condemned but not demolished. Its closure led to the construction of the New Cathedral of Managua, which was completed in 1993.
The tower clock was damaged in the Contra War of the 1980s and removed in renovations of the late 1990s. It is now at the National Palace of Culture. Restoration of the old cathedral has seemed possible since the 1990s.
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