Peru's white-stone second city began as a 1540 Spanish villa
Arequipa, projected at 1,195,700 people in 2025, is Peru's second city after Lima and seat of the Constitutional Court. Spaniards founded Villa Hermosa on 15 August 1540; Charles V made it Ciudad de Arequipa on 25 September 1541. It straddles the Chili River between Andes and coastal hills.
The Chili valley was home to nomadic hunters, fishers and gatherers until shortly before the Inca era; they domesticated camelids, settled down to farm, and dug irrigation canals that allowed crops on the plain and on terraces above the river. The Inca Mayta Cápac did not found a town there but installed mitma colonists, people moved by the state to hold a frontier, though Garcilaso de la Vega later credited the Incas with villages such as Yanahuara and Cayma. A favourite legend derives the name from a Quechua phrase granting permission to stay, while rival theories point to Puquina or Aymara roots.
Juan de la Torre and Garcí Manuel de Carbajal, a lieutenant of Francisco Pizarro, moved the settlement of Villa Hermosa de Camaná into the valley, dividing lots so that Pizarro, the council and the Dominicans each received a full block. The coat of arms granted in 1541 shows a griffin holding a flag marked Carlos V. After independence the city served as a counterweight to Lima, a second capital that staged more than seven uprisings before 1850 and twice hosted the national government.
Economically it is Peru's second most industrialised city, and its department forms the country's second-largest regional economy; a 2015 study put the city's own GDP at US$9.445 billion, with industries including textiles woven from camelid wool. The city proper covers 14 districts and the metropolitan area 21. UNESCO listed 332 hectares of the historic centre as World Heritage in 2000, and in 2020 UNESCO also admitted the city to its network of learning cities. Its official anthem won a council competition held in 1939 to mark the fourth centenary.
Source: Arequipa
