WordPress Multi-Network, wildcard subdomains returning 404 after custom .htaccess rewrite

using the Ubuntu + Hestia control panel (wildcard for subdomains “*.mydomain.com” In a WordPress Multi-Network (MultiSite within MultiNetwork with WP Multi Networks plugin) installation, each network runs as a subdomain (e.g. country.example.net) and each subsite must be created as a directory path (country.example.net/city/). After applying custom .htaccess rewrite rules, the redirect loop was resolved. But WordPress now returns a 404 Page not found, meaning it doesn’t recognize the routed paths.

My problem: Page not found Error code: 404

My .htaccess:

    # BEGIN Hybrid MultiNetwork Rewrite
RewriteEngine On

# Protect admin, login, and REST endpoints
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(wp-admin|wp-login\.php|wp-json|xmlrpc\.php) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [L]

# Skip rewrite if 'country' or 'city' parameters already exist in the URL
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (^|&)(country|city)= [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [L]

# Apply only for subdomain-based network requests (e.g., country.example.net)
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^([a-z0-9-]+)\.example\.net$ [NC]

# Ignore if the request points to an existing file or directory
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

# Ignore WordPress core and system folders
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(wp-|index\.php|\.well-known|robots\.txt) [NC]

# Rewrite URLs like /city/ to index.php with country and city parameters
RewriteRule ^([a-z0-9-]+)/?$ index.php?country=%1&city=$1 [L,QSA]

# END Hybrid MultiNetwork Rewrite

My configuration.php:

    if ( isset( $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'] ) && 'https' === strtolower( $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'] ) ) {
    $_SERVER['HTTPS']      = 'on';
    $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT'] = 443;
}

/* Add any custom values between this line and the "stop editing" line. */

/* Multisite */
define( 'WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );
define( 'MULTISITE', true );
define( 'SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL', false );
define( 'DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'tifonder.net' );
define( 'PATH_CURRENT_SITE', '/' );
define( 'SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1 );
define( 'BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1 );
/* That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */

/** Absolute path to the WordPress directory. */
if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {
    define( 'ABSPATH', __DIR__ . '/' );
}

My nginx.conf: /usr/local/hestia/data/templates/web/nginx/default-subdir.tpl

    #=========================================================================#
# Default Web Domain Template                                             #
# DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE! CHANGES WILL BE LOST WHEN REBUILDING DOMAINS   #
# https://hestiacp.com/docs/server-administration/web-templates.html      #
#=========================================================================#

server {
    listen      %ip%:%proxy_port%;
    server_name %domain_idn% %alias_idn%;
    error_log   /var/log/%web_system%/domains/%domain%.error.log error;

    include %home%/%user%/conf/web/%domain%/nginx.forcessl.conf*;

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known\/|file) {
        deny all;
        return 404;
    }

    # main block Proxy ל-Apache
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://%ip%:%web_port%;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }

    # 
    location ~* ^.+\.(%proxy_extensions%)$ {
        root       %docroot%;
        access_log /var/log/%web_system%/domains/%domain%.log combined;
        access_log /var/log/%web_system%/domains/%domain%.bytes bytes;
        expires    max;
        try_files $uri =404;
    }

    location @fallback {
        proxy_pass http://%ip%:%web_port%;
    }

    location /error/ {
        alias %home%/%user%/web/%domain%/document_errors/;
    }
}

error logs:

        [Thu Oct 09 20:11:10.830172 2025] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 148919:tid 148919] [client 145.223.96.3:39508] AH01071: Got error 'PHP message: PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/james/web/mydomain.net/public_html/wp-includes/fonts/class-wp-font-face.php:121) in /home/james/web/mydomain.net/public_html/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 1450PHP message: PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/james/web/mydomain.net/public_html/wp-includes/fonts/class-wp-font-face.php:121) in /home/james/web/mydomain.net/public_html/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 1453', referer: https://mydomain.net/wp-admin/network/sites.php?page=hmnp-add-city-site
    [Thu Oct 09 20:11:17.610234 2025] [core:error] [pid 148874:tid 148874] [client 145.223.96.3:53204] AH00124: Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use 'LimitInternalRecursion' to increase the limit if necessary. Use 'LogLevel debug' to get a backtrace.

#WordPress #MultiNetwork #wildcard #subdomains #returning #custom #.htaccess #rewrite