History

Long before the Spanish arrived, the site was Tomebamba — a major Inca administrative and ceremonial capital founded around 1470 CE by Inca Tupac Yupanqui and expanded under Huayna Capac, who may have been born there. Tomebamba was considered by some sources to rival Cusco in grandeur, with temples, storehouses, and royal palaces built in classic Inca polygonal stone masonry. When the civil war between Huáscar and Atahualpa tore the Inca Empire apart in the 1520s, Tomebamba was largely destroyed.

The Spanish conquistadors arrived in the region in the 1530s. In 1557, the colonial city of Cuenca was formally established by order of the Viceroy of Peru, Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, and founded by Captain Gil Ramírez Dávalos. The city was laid out on the Renaissance grid model, with a central Plaza Mayor (today Parque Calderón), a cathedral, town hall, and administrative buildings. Stone from the destroyed Inca temples was reused in colonial construction, and some Inca walls are still visible beneath and beside colonial buildings.

Cuenca flourished through the colonial and Republican eras as an artisanal and commercial centre. By the 19th century the city was producing fine textiles, ceramics, and the hat that would become known worldwide as the Panama hat — actually a Cuencan invention. These hats were called Panama hats because they were shipped to global markets via Panama during the Canal construction. The New Cathedral, with its distinctive turquoise domes, was begun in 1885 and completed only in 1975, and remains the city’s most recognisable landmark.