Cuenca

Long before the Spanish came, the valley where four rivers meet was home to the Cañari, whose settlement here was called Guapondelig. In the late 15th century, after a bitter struggle, the Inca conquered them, and Tupac Inca Yupanqui ordered a grand city built on the site. Tomebamba, with its palace and temples at Pumapungo, was said by chroniclers to rival Cusco, but by the time the Spanish reached it the city had been destroyed and abandoned during the Inca civil war, and stories of its lost gold made it one of the candidates for El Dorado.

On 12 April 1557 Gil Ramírez Dávalos, acting for the viceroy of Peru, founded Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca on the ruins, naming it after the Spanish city of Cuenca and the rivers that cross it. The colonial town grew slowly on a regular grid of churches and convents. Cuenca declared its independence on 3 November 1820 and became the capital of one of the three provinces of the new republic.

In the 19th and 20th centuries the city lived on crafts and trade, above all the toquilla-straw hats exported through Panama. Work on the New Cathedral began in 1885 and took almost a century. The historic centre was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, and Cuenca has since become a magnet for tourists and for foreign retirees. A tram line opened in May 2020. The severe drought of 2024, worst in the south of the country, led to national power cuts, and in September 2025 Azuay was placed under a state of emergency during the fuel-subsidy protests.

Cuenca has long called itself the Athens of Ecuador, for its contribution to the country's arts, sciences and literature and for the writers and public figures born here. The city has a strong Catholic tradition that shows in the many churches of the old town and in its religious processions.

Crafts are the city's best-known export. The weaving of the toquilla-straw hat, sold abroad for more than a century as the Panama hat, was added to UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage lists in 2012; the hats are plaited from palm-like toquilla fibre in villages of Azuay and Cañar and finished, blocked and sold in Cuenca's workshops. Ceramics, ironwork, embroidery and the filigree jewellery of nearby Chordeleg are also part of the city's craft tradition.

The great public celebrations are the Pase del Niño Viajero on 24 December, when thousands of musicians and people of all ages dressed as biblical characters pass through the historic centre with decorated trucks and horses, the independence festivities of early November, and Carnival, when the city splashes itself with water balloons and foam.

The 2022 census figure of about 596,000 people for Cuenca is in line with the population of the whole canton, which an official 2015 estimate put at 580,000, about 400,000 of them in the city proper; Cuenca is the third-largest city in Ecuador after Guayaquil and Quito. Local publications estimate that between 4,000 and 6,000 foreign residents live here, many of them retirees from the United States and Europe drawn by the climate and the cost of living. Long emigration from Azuay to the United States and Spain has also shaped the city, and remittances are an important source of income.

The economy rests on commerce and industry — textiles, furniture, hats and shoes, as well as ceramics and appliances — alongside tourism, the universities and the administration of the province. Cuenca once exported cut flowers widely and now specialises in orchids.

Life is calmer than in Quito or Guayaquil. Most people live in the newer districts beyond the rivers, while the old town fills by day with offices, shops and visitors. Markets are busiest in the morning, lunch is the largest meal of the day, and the riverside paths are used for walking, running and cycling. Recent concerns include the drought and power cuts of 2024 and mining in the páramo, such as the Loma Larga project in the Quimsacocha water reserve, whose approval helped fuel the 2025 protests.

Cuenca's cooking centres on pork and maize. Hornado, a whole roast pig, and chancho al horno are carved at market stalls and served with mote, the large boiled hominy that is a staple here; mote pillo, one of the most typical dishes of Cuenca, scrambles it with egg, and mote pata is another popular mote dish. Llapingachos, cheesy potato cakes, and morocho, made from maize, are everyday favourites.

Cuy, roast guinea pig, is a popular traditional dish, and trout from the lakes and streams of Cajas is a common main course. Lunch is the largest meal of the day, typically served in two courses: soup, then stewed or grilled meat with rice.

Around the Day of the Dead on 2 November, families drink colada morada, a thick purple drink made with fruits, spices and maize flour, with guaguas de pan, filled breads shaped like dolls. Canelazo, sugarcane spirit with hot cinnamon water, often with naranjilla juice, is drunk on cold evenings.