Huancayo

The valley was home to the Huanca long before the Inca. Its central part fell within the Wari empire, which expanded north from Ayacucho from the sixth century and left the temple of Warivilca on the city's southern edge. Around 1460 the Inca ruler Pachacuti conquered the Huanca, who resisted repeatedly, and the valley became a granary of the empire and a stage on the Qhapaq Ñan, the royal road north to Cajamarca and Quito; its line through the city is still called Calle Real. When the Spanish arrived, the Huanca sided with them and fought alongside them at Cusco and against the Inca of Vilcabamba.

Huancayo was at first overshadowed by Jauja, Pizarro's provisional capital. In 1572 it was founded as a reduction, Santísima Trinidad de Huancayo, by Jerónimo de Silva. In 1813 the town celebrated the Constitution of Cádiz and renamed its market square the Plaza de la Constitución, and the cathedral was built on its west side between 1799 and 1831. Bolívar passed through in 1824, expelling the royalist friars of Ocopa, and in 1854 Ramón Castilla issued the decree abolishing slavery in Peru in a house on the square.

The railway from the coast reached the city in the early 20th century and turned it into the commercial centre of the central Andes. In the 1980s the Shining Path and the MRTA both operated in the city; the MRTA leader Víctor Polay was captured on Plaza Huamanmarca in 1988, and the Shining Path's last leader, Feliciano, at Cochas in 1999. People fleeing the violence swelled the population, and the city grew fast.

Huancayo is the cultural capital of the Mantaro Valley, and its identity is proudly Huanca, or Wanka. Music is at the centre of it: the huaylarsh, a dance that began as a farming rite and was given its modern form by the composer Zenobio Dagha and his orchestra, sits alongside the Santiago, the mulizas and huaynos. The Parque de la Identidad Huanca, completed in 1996, honours the folk singers who made the region's music known across Peru, among them La Chaparrita and Flor Pucarina, with statues among its canals and portals. Musicians, some playing cow-horn trumpets, wait outside the church of La Inmaculada to be hired for weddings and celebrations.

The surrounding villages keep the valley's craft traditions — weaving in Hualhuas, silver filigree in San Jerónimo de Tunán and the finely carved gourds of Cochas — and their festivals fill much of the year. The painter Josué Sánchez and the muralist and letterer Elliot Túpac are among the city's best-known artists, and an international book fair has been held every year since 2009.

Football, volleyball and long-distance running are the popular sports. Sport Huancayo plays in the national first division at the 20,000-seat Estadio Huancayo, which also hosts the yearly Marathon de los Andes, run at well over 3,000 metres.

The three central districts — Huancayo, El Tambo and Chilca — had about 400,000 people in 2020, and the wider urban area spreads into neighbouring districts along the highways. It is the economic and social centre of central Peru and, as capital of the Junín Region, the seat of the regional government, the regional ministries and the Superior Court of Junín.

Trade is the city's backbone. Farmers and traders from the valley and the jungle towns to the east bring produce, livestock and goods to its markets, and the Sunday fair along Avenida Huancavelica, held since the 19th century, is the weekly high point. Universities — the Universidad Nacional del Centro del Perú, the Universidad Peruana Los Andes and the Universidad Continental among them — give the city a large student population.

Much of the growth of recent decades came from people who sought refuge from the highlands and the Amazon lowlands during the internal conflict. The result is a busy city with crowded streets, colectivos and taxis, and the green valley and its villages a short ride away.

Huancayo gave its name to papa a la huancaína, one of Peru's best-known dishes: boiled potatoes covered with a creamy sauce of yellow ají chilli and fresh cheese, garnished with hard-boiled egg and black olives.

Trout raised in the cold streams of the valley is the other staple. The farms at Ingenio are the classic place to eat it, and every restaurant there has its own recipes; ceviche de trucha, the fish cured in lime with onion and chilli, is a local favourite. Guinea pig, cuy, is served as picante de cuy, in a chilli sauce, or as cuy chactado, fried guinea pig, and pachamanca, meat and potatoes cooked on heated stones, is the meal for Sundays and celebrations.

The Sunday fair, with its farm produce, crafts and everyday goods, is a good place to see what the valley grows. Everyday lunch is the menú, a set meal of soup, main course and a drink, served cheaply in small restaurants across the centre.