HISTORY OF THE CRAFT MARKET
This post was written by Byron Ortega a tour operator and a great historian.
In the middle of the last century the land where the market is located was donated by Mr. Ignacio Navarro and he was used to build a University. Years later, on September 18, 1888, with Mr. Rafael Zurita being Mayor of Masaya, the contract was signed for the construction of the Market. The builders were the Engineers Gil Pimentel and William Claine, the master builder was Don Gabriel Sánchez Aráuz.
The money for the work was lent by the Granada sugar producer Adolfo Benard so that it could be built with quarried stones and a zinc roof.
“It offers neo-Gothic elements within the solidity of its stone walls, an influence that is the product of the vaguely romantic climate, diffused in America during the 19th century.
This work was completed in 1891, its measurements are 104 varas from north to south and 120 varas from east to west, its first administrator was Don Félix Cruz Bermúdez. At the conclusion of the construction, the two engineers were granted the concession to exploit them for a term of 50 years, later they transferred their rights to “Nicaragua Sugar”, later those rights were transferred to Mr. Adolfo Benard of the City of Granada.
In 1926, when Dr. Aarón Tuckler was mayor of Masaya, he began negotiations with Mr. Benard to transfer the Market to the municipality through the purchase or assignment that Mr. Benard would make of the 12 years remaining in the term granted to the contractors to exploit it. The will of Don Adolfo Benard and the interest of Dr. Tuckler were crowned with the acquisition of the “Mercado de Masaya”. This market was burned for the first time in 1966, and the second time by a criminal hand in 1978 at the beginning of the War of Insurrection. In the eighties the Municipal Market was provisionally moved to the old railway station, and then to the La Reforma district, that is when this building acquired the nickname of “Old Market of Masaya”, its interior being used for artistic shows and popular festivals , and in its surrounding streets the inter-urban bus stop. In 1992 the Ministry of Tourism began the reconstruction and reinforcement of the walls of the building as the first phase of the project “Centro Cultural Antiguo Mercado de Masaya”, and the first stage of construction consists of forty modules for the Expo-Sale of national crafts.
It was reopened on May 26, 1997, opening its doors to the public with forty modules of national crafts expo-sale and a Cafetín, in October of the same year the second stage of forty more modules was inaugurated for a total of eighty-one.
On February 4, 1999, an important phase was inaugurated, consisting of two conference rooms, a show square, a restaurant and administrative offices, and the “Verbena Thursday” project began, under the slogan “Let’s go to Masaya” customs, cultural traditions and gastronomy from the cradle of national folklore.
We toured this market various times and also did a video. https://youtu.be/4EiIKUgVQdo
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