Quito (redirected from capital of Ecuador)

Quito (kē`tō), city (1990 pop. 1,100,847), N central Ecuador, capital of Ecuador and of Pichincha prov. After Guayaquil it is Ecuador's largest city. The setting of Quito is visually splendid: It lies at the foot of the Pichincha volcano in the hollow of a gently sloping, fertile valley. Only a short distance below the equator but at an elevation of 9,350 ft (2,850 m), Quito has a pleasant, balmy climate; however, it is subject to earthquakes and has been damaged several times. The city has textile mills and handicraft and other minor industries, but it is primarily as the educational, cultural, and political center of Ecuador that Quito is important. It is the seat of the Central Univ. of Ecuador and of the oldest art school in Latin America. The site was originally settled by the Quito people. It was captured by the Inca and became the capital of the Inca Kingdom of Quito a few decades before Sebastián de Benalcázar arrived and captured it for Spain (1534). In 1663, Quito became the seat of an audiencia, with boundaries foreshadowing that of present-day Ecuador. Quito was shifted back and forth between the viceroyalty of Peru and that of New Granada. There was an abortive uprising against Spain in 1809, and not until 1822 was the city liberated by Antonio José de Sucre. Quito has a Spanish colonial atmosphere, with many examples of fine early architecture, notably the great Church of San Francisco (see Spanish colonial art and architecture). Much of the city's population is Native American.

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Quito

City (pop., 2001: 1,399,378), capital of Ecuador. The city lies at an elevation of 9,350 ft (2,850 m) on the lower slopes of Pichincha, an active volcano, in a narrow valley of the Andes Mountains. A pre-Columbian town, it was captured by the Inca in 1487 and taken by the Spanish in 1534. It is the oldest of all South American capitals, and its old town preserves much of its colonial atmosphere. In 1552 the Franciscans established an art school there, the first of its kind in South America. One of Ecuador's two major industrial centres, it produces textiles and light consumer goods. It is the site of several institutions of higher learning. The old town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978.

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Quito

the capital of Ecuador, in the north at an altitude of 2850 m (9350 ft.), just south of the equator: the oldest capital in South America, existing many centuries before the Incan conquest in 1487; a cultural centre since the beginning of Spanish rule (1534); two universities. Pop.: 1 514 000 (2005 est.)