Quito

People lived in the valley long before the city: obsidian tools at El Inga on the slopes of Ilaló date to about 8000 BC, a farming village grew at Cotocollao around 1500 BC, and deep shaft tombs from about AD 800 have been found in the La Florida neighbourhood. In the late fifteenth century the Inca ruler Huayna Capac defeated the Quitu, the valley's people, and Quito became the capital of the empire's northern region. When the Spanish arrived, the general Rumiñahui resisted; the town was refounded at its present site on 6 December 1534 by 204 settlers under Sebastián de Benalcázar, and Rumiñahui was executed early in 1535.

The San Francisco convent was begun in January 1535, the first of about twenty churches and convents built in colonial times, largely with Indigenous labour. Quito became the seat of a Real Audiencia in 1563, but stayed a small city: about 10,000 people in 1743. It briefly declared itself independent of Spain in the Quito Revolt of 1765–66, and on 10 August 1809 a junta declared self-government; colonial troops crushed it in 1810, and independence came with Sucre's victory at the Battle of Pichincha on 24 May 1822.

The republic's century was violent. President García Moreno was assassinated here in 1875, Eloy Alfaro was lynched by a mob in 1912, and in 1949 a radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds caused a panic in which more than twenty people died. In 1978 the historic centre and Kraków were the first places inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The city has renewed its centre since 2002, moved its airport out to Tababela in 2013 and opened a metro in 2023; in 2025 a landslide broke a main water pipe and caused the worst water crisis in 25 years.

Quito is the political and cultural capital of Ecuador, home to its main government, cultural and administrative institutions. Its colonial churches hold the work of the Quito School, the painters and sculptors, among them Bernardo de Legarda and Caspicara, who worked across the old Audiencia of Quito, from Pasto and Popayán to Piura and Cajamarca; Legarda's winged Virgin is copied in the huge statue on El Panecillo. The twentieth-century painter Oswaldo Guayasamín built his own monument in the Capilla del Hombre.

Catholic ritual still shapes the year. Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday, and at noon on Good Friday the March of the Penitents sets out from San Francisco. The founding of the city is celebrated for a week that ends on 6 December, with parades, a queen, opera and theatre, and La Mariscal holds a large parade during it. Neighbourhoods keep their own fiestas — Guápulo's in September — and Itchimbía hosts the free Quito Fest music festival.

Football matters a great deal. LDU Quito is the country's most successful club and the only Ecuadorian winner of the Copa Libertadores, in 2008; Independiente del Valle, El Nacional, Aucas and Deportivo Quito are also based here, and the altitude of the city's stadiums, over 2,800 metres, is held to give home sides an advantage.

Ecuador's statistics institute counts about 1.76 million people in the city and about 2.68 million in the wider metropolitan district. It fills a long plateau on the eastern flank of Pichincha at about 2,850 metres, with the old town in the south-centre and the modern business and nightlife districts to the north; the valleys of Los Chillos and Tumbaco lie below to the east.

As the seat of government, Quito holds the country's main governmental and administrative institutions, and it contributes more to national output than any other city, with the highest income per head. Petroecuador, the state oil company, and the regional offices of many international firms and banks are based here, alongside textile and metal industries and agriculture.

Daily life runs north to south along the valley, and traffic and water supply are under pressure. The metro now runs from one end of the line to the other in about half an hour. The 2025 water crisis, which left about 400,000 residents without supply, showed the strain on the city's infrastructure, and crime has become a real concern: homicides rose sharply in the first months of 2025 compared with the year before, though the capital remains calmer than the coastal cities. Evenings are cold enough for a jacket all year.

Quito eats like the rest of the highlands, with potatoes, maize and pork at the centre. Hornado, roast pig, is a popular street food of the mountain regions, and it appears with fritada and yahuarlocro among the typical dishes served in the city and the valleys around it. Llapingachos, pan-seared potato balls, are eaten across Ecuador.

Street food comes into its own in the evening. The traffic circle in La Floresta becomes a food market at night, where the favourite is tripa mishqui, grilled beef or pork intestines, and the area around it has many of the city's restaurants. La Mariscal, around Plaza Foch, has a wide mix of local and international cooking. Restaurants serve the almuerzo, a cheap set lunch of soup, a main course and juice, and lunch is the main meal of the day.

Some foods belong to particular days. In the week before All Souls' Day in November, colada morada, a drink of black corn flour sweetened with panela and flavoured with fruit, herbs and spices, is served with guaguas de pan, bread shaped like children. Cacao is one of the country's export crops, and cafés serve hot chocolate. During the Fiestas de Quito the popular drink is canelazo, made with aguardiente.