Spanish explorer Gil Ramírez Dávalos on April…
1557 CE
Spanish explorer Gil Ramírez Dávalos on April 12, 1557, establishes a city on the site of a native village in the highlands of south central Ecuador.
Commissioned by Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, Viceroy of Peru, he had the city named after his home town of Cuenca, Spain.
Founded notably later than other major Ecuadorian cities, such as Quito (1534), Guayaquil (1538), and Loja (1548), Cuenca is today the capital of the Azuay Province and the third largest city in Ecuador by population, which totals four hundred and sixty-seven thousand.