San Francisco de Quito, most
often called Quito, is the capital city of Ecuador
in
northwestern South America.
It is
located in north-central Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha
, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains. With a population of
1,397,698 according to the last census (2001), and, as estimated by
the municipality, approximately 1,504,991 in 2005, Quito is the
second most populous city in Ecuador, after Guayaquil
. It is also the capital of the Pichincha province and the seat of
Metropolitan
District of Quito
. The
canton recorded a population of 1,842,201 residents in the 2001
national census. In 2008 the city was designated as the
headquarters of the
Union of South American
Nations.
The
elevation of the city's
central square (Plaza de La Independencia or Plaza
Grande) is 2,800 m (about 9,186 ft), making Quito
the second-highest administrative capital city in the world (after
La Paz
, Bolivia
), and the
highest legal capital (ahead of Sucre
, also in
Bolivia, and Bogotá
, Colombia
).
The central square of Quito is located about 25 km (15 miles)
south of the
equator; the city itself
extends to within about 1 km (0.6 miles) of zero latitude.
A monument
and museum marking the general location of the equator is known
locally as la mitad
del mundo
(the
middle of the world), to avoid confusion, as the word is Spanish for equator.
Quito,
along with Krakow
, were the
first Cultural Heritage Sites
declared by UNESCO
in
1978.
History
Pre-Columbian
Quito's origins date back to the first millennium, when the
Quitu tribe occupied the area and eventually
formed a commercial center. According to
Juan de Velasco's 1767 book
Historia del
Reino de Quito, the Quitu were conquered by the
Caras tribe, who founded the Kingdom of Quito
about 980 CE.
Colony
Indigenous
resistance to the Spanish invasion
continued during 1534, with Diego de
Almagro founding Santiago de Quito (in present day Colta, near
Riobamba
) on August 15 of that same
year, later to be renamed San Francisco de Quito on August 28. The city was later moved to its
present location and was refounded on December 6, 1534 by 204
settlers led by
Sebastián de Benalcázar,
who captured
Rumiñahui
and effectively ended any organized resistance. Rumiñahui was then
executed on January 10, 1535. On March 14, 1541, Quito was declared
a city and on February 14, 1556, was given the title
Muy Noble
y Muy Leal Ciudad de San Francisco de Quito ("Very Noble and
Loyal City of San Francisco of Quito").
In 1563, Quito became
the seat of a royal audiencia (administrative district) of
Spain and became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru with its capital in
Lima
(see Real Audiencia de Quito
).
Main doorway to the Cathedral
The Spanish promptly established
Roman
Catholicism in Quito, with the first church (El Belén) built
even before the city had been officially founded. In January 1535,
the San Francisco Convent was constructed, the first of about 20
churches and convents built during the colonial period. The Spanish
actively converted the indigenous population and used them as
forced labor for construction, especially in the early colonial
years. The Diocese of Quito was established in 1545 and was
elevated to the Archdiocese of Quito in 1849.
In 1809, after nearly 300 years of Spanish colonization, Quito was
a city of about 10,000 inhabitants. On August 10, 1809, a movement
was started in Quito that aimed for political independence from
Spain. On that date, a plan for government was established that
placed Juan Pío Montúfar as president with various other prominent
figures in other positions of government.
However, this initial
movement was ultimately defeated on August 2, 1810, when Imperial
troops came from Lima, Peru
, and killed
the leaders of the uprising along with about 200 inhabitants of the
city. A chain of conflicts concluded on May 24, 1822, when
Antonio José de Sucre,
under the command of
Simón
Bolívar, led troops into the
Battle of Pichincha. Their victory
marked the independence of Quito and the surrounding areas.
Gran Colombia
Just days after the Battle of Pichincha, on May 24, 1822, the
leaders of the city proclaimed their independence and allowed the
city to be annexed to the
Republic of Gran Colombia. Simón
Bolívar went to Quito on June 16, 1822, and was present at the
signing of the Colombian Constitution on June 24, 1822. When the
Gran Colombia dissolved in 1830, Quito became the capital of the
newly formed Republic of Ecuador.
Republican Era
In 1833, members of the Society of Free Inhabitants of Quito were
assassinated by the government after they conspired against it, and
on March 6, 1845, the
Marcist
Revolution began. Later, in 1875, the country's president,
Gabriel García Moreno,
was assassinated in Quito. Two years later, in 1877, Archbishop
José Ignacio Checa y
Barba was killed by poisoning while he was giving mass.
In 1882, insurgents arose against the regime of dictator
Ignacio de Veintemilla. However, this
did not end the violence that was occurring throughout the country.
On July 9, 1883, the liberal commander
Eloy
Alfaro participated in the
Battle of Guayaquil, and later, after
more conflict, became the president of Ecuador on September 4,
1895. Upon completing his second term in 1911, he moved to
Europe. When he returned to Ecuador in 1912 and
attempted a return to power, he was arrested on January 28, 1912;
thrown in prison; and assassinated by a mob that had stormed the
prison. His body was dragged through the streets of Quito to a city
park, where it was burned.
In 1932, the
Four Days' War broke
out. This was a civil war that followed the election of
Neptalí Bonifaz and the subsequent
realization that he carried a Peruvian passport. Workers at a major
textile factory went on strike in 1934, and similar unrest
continues to the present day. On February 12, 1949, a realistic
broadcast of
H. G. Wells' novel
The War of the
Worlds led to citywide panic and the deaths of more than
twenty people who died in fires set by mobs.
In recent years, Quito has been the focal point of large
demonstrations that led to the ousting of presidents
Abdalá Bucaram (February 5, 1997),
Jamil Mahuad (January 21, 2000), and
Lucio Gutiérrez (April 20,
2005).
Geography
Quito and the Pichincha volcano
Quito is
located in the northern highlands of Ecuador in the
Guayllabamba river basin.
The city has been built on a long plateau lying on the east flanks
of the Pichincha volcano. The valley of Guayllabamba River where
Quito lies is flanked by volcanoes, some of them snow-capped, that
can be visible from the city on a clear day.
Some of the volcanoes
on the Central Cordillera (Royal Cordillera), east of Quito,
surrounding the Guayllabamba valley are Cotopaxi
, Sincholagua, Antisana
, and Cayambe
. Some of the volcanoes of the Western
Cordillera, to the west of the Guayllabamba valley, are Illiniza
, Atacazo
, Pichincha, and Pululahua
(which has the Pululahua Geobotanical
Reserve).
Nearby volcanoes
Quito's closest volcano is Pichincha, looming over the western side
of the city. Quito is also the only capital in the world to be
directly menaced by an active volcano.
Pichincha volcano has
several summits, among them Rucu Pichincha at 4700 metres above sea
level and Guagua
Pichincha
at 4794 metres. Guagua Pichincha is
active and being monitored by volcanologists at the geophysical
institute of the national polytechnic
university
. The largest eruption occurred in 1660 when
more than 10
inches (25 cm) of ash covered
the city. There were three minor eruptions in the 1800s. The latest
eruption was recorded on
August 23, 2006,
when a few puffs of smoke and a large amount of ash were deposited
on the city. Although not devastating, the eruption caused
significant disruption of activities, including closing of the
international airport. It is unlikely that any serious activity
will occur in the near future, and the topography of the volcano is
such that, even if a major eruption were to occur, lava flows would
head into the almost-unpopulated areas west of the volcano, sparing
Quito, which lies to the east.
Activity in other nearby volcanoes also can affect the city.
In
November 2002, after an eruption in the volcano Reventador
, the city was showered with a layer of fine ash
particles to a depth of several centimeters.
Climate
Under the
Koppen climate
classification, Quito has a
Subtropical highland climate. Because of its
elevation and its proximity to the equator, Quito has a fairly
constant cool climate, with spring-like weather year-round. The
average temperature at noon is 19°
C
(66°
F) with a normal night-time low of
10°
C (50°
F). The
annual average temperature is 15°
C
(64°
F). The city experiences only two
seasons: dry and wet. The dry season, June through September (4
months), is referred to as summer; the wet season, October through
May (8 months), is referred to as winter.
Demographics
Population
This is population figure for the city proper as determined by the
last census conducted in 2001. The number does not reflect the
population of the whole canton, which also includes the surrounding
rural parishes (parish seats and their surroundings), which are
separate from the city.
Topographical zones
Quito is divided into three areas, separated by hills:
- Central: houses the colonial old
city.
- Southern: is mainly industrial and residential, and a
working-class housing area.
- Northern: is the modern Quito, with high-rise buildings,
shopping centers, the financial district, and upper-class
residential areas and some working-class housing areas.
It is the
location of Mariscal Sucre International
Airport
.
Politics
Governance
Paco Moncayo, former mayor of
Quito
Quito is governed by a mayor and a 15-member city council. The
mayor is elected to a four-year term and can be re-elected.
The
position also doubles as Mayor of the Metropolitan District of Quito (the canton).
Urban parishes
In Ecuador, cantons are subdivided into
parishes. These
subdivisions are called
parishes because they were
originally used by the Catholic Church, but, along with the
secularization and liberalization of the Ecuadorian state, the
political parishes were spun off the ones used by the church.
Parishes are called
urban if they are within the
boundaries of the seat (capital) of their corresponding canton, and
rural if they are outside of those boundaries. Inside
Quito (the city proper), the way in which the city is subdivided
into urban parishes depends on the organizations which use those
parishes (e.g., the municipality, the electoral tribunals, the
postal service, the Ecuadorian statistics institute). The urban
parishes of different types are not necessarily coterminous nor the
same in number or name.
Municipal/administrative urban parishes (cabildos)
As of 2008, the municipality of Quito divided the city into 32
urban parishes. These parishes, which are used by the municipality
for administrative purposes, are also known as
cabildos
since 2001. Since the times of the Metropolitan District of Quito,
parishes of this type are also grouped into larger divisions known
as
municipal zones (
zonas municipales). These
parishes are as follows:
Urban parishes of the Metropolitan District of Quito
- Argelia, La
- Belisario Quevedo
- Carcelén
- Centro Histórico
- Chilibulo
- Chillogallo
- Chimbacalle
- Cochapamba
- Comité del Pueblo
- Condado, El
- Concepción, La
- Cotocollao
- Ecuatoriana, La
- Ferroviaria, La
- Guamaní
- Inca, El
- Iñaquito
- Itchimbía
- Jipijapa
- Kennedy
- Libertad, La
- Magdalena
- Mariscal Sucre
- Mena, La
- Ponceano
- Puengasí
- Quitumbe
- Rumipamba
- San Juan
- San Bartolo
- Solanda
- Turubamba
Electoral urban parishes (CNE/TEP)
Electoral urban parishes are used by the Consejo Nacional Electoral
(CNE) (until the 2008 Ecuadorian constitution known as
Tribunal
Supremo Electoral (
TSE)) and by the Tribunal
Electoral de Pichincha (TEP) in order to distribute vote ballots
and count electoral votes. Unlike rural parishes, urban parishes do
not have and do not elect a
junta parroquial (parochial
committee/junta). Within each of these parishes, there are one or
more schools in which elections take place, typically on Sundays.
As of the 2008 Ecuadorian referendum, there were 19 urban parishes
of this type, as follows:
- Alfaro
- Benalcázar
- Chaupicruz
- Chillogallo
- Cotocollao
- El Salvador
- González Suárez
- Guápulo
- La Floresta
- La Libertad
- La Magdalena
- La Vicentina
- San Blas
- San Marcos
- San Roque
- San Sebastián
- Santa Barbara
- Santa Prisca
- Villa Flora
Later in 2008, the relatively small González Suárez parish was
removed from the list, prior to the 2009 elections.
Ecclesiastical parishes
The
Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Quito divides the city into 167 parishes, which
are grouped into 17 zones.
Transportation
Ground transport
Road transport
Public road transport
The
MetrobusQ network, also known as "Red
Integrada de Transporte Público", is the
bus rapid transit system running in Quito,
and it goes through the city from south to north. It's divided into
three sections—the green line (
the central trolleybus, known as
El Trole), the red line (the north-east
Ecovía), and the blue line (the north-west
Corredor Central). In addition to the
bus rapid transit system, there are many
buses running in the city. The buses have both a name and a number,
and they have a fixed route. Taxi cabs are all yellow, and they
have meters that show the fare. There are nearly 8,800 registered
taxicabs.
Private road transport
Although public transportation is the primary form of travel in the
city, including fleets of taxis that constantly cruise the
roadways, the use of private vehicles has increased substantially
during the past decade.
Because of growing road congestion in many areas, there are plans
to construct a
light rail system, which
would replace the northern portion of the
Trole. It is
hoped to begin construction in 2010.
Roads, avenues and streets
Because Quito is about 40 km (24.85 miles) long and 5 km
(3.1 miles) at its widest, most of the important avenues of the
city extend from north to south. The two main motorways that go
from the northern part of the city to the southern are Avenue
Oriental (Corredor Periférico Oriental) on the eastern hills that
border the city, and Avenue Occidental on the western side of the
city on the Pichincha volcano. The street 10 de Agosto also runs
north to south through most of the city, running down the middle of
it. Because of the hills and the city's curved shape, a grid
pattern is extremely difficult to imply. The historic centre of the
city is based on a grid pattern, despite the hills, with the
streets Venezuela, Chile, García Moreno, and Guayaquil being the
most important.
Some of the most important avenues in Quito are:
- Avenue Río Amazonas
- Avenue de la Prensa
- Avenue 6 de Diciembre
- Avenue de los Shyris
- Avenue Naciones Unidas
- Avenue 10 de Agosto
- Avenue Diego de Vazques
- Avenue Eloy Alfaro
- Avenue de la República
- Avenue República del Salvador
- Avenue América
- Avenue Patria
- Avenue Francisco de Orellana
- Avenue General Rumiñahui
- Avenue Interoceánica
- Avenue González Suárez
- Avenue Real Audiencia
- Avenue Galo Plaza
- Avenue El Inca
- Avenue Napo
- Avenue Vicente Maldonado
Railroad transport
There is a railroad that goes through the southern part of Quito
and passes through the
Estación de Chimbacalle.
It is managed by the
Empresa de Ferrocarriles
Ecuatorianos (EFE). This form of transport is nowadays used
mostly for tourism.
Air transport
Mariscal Sucre Airport runway.
Mariscal
Sucre International Airport (IATA airport code: UIO) serves as the city's
principal airport for passenger travel and freight. Its
runway is 3120 metres long and is capable of handling many types of
large aircraft. The main terminal is located on Avenue Amazonas.
The airport is located 10 kilometres north of the city's centre,
within driving distance to the main business center. Because of
tall buildings and fog at night, landing from the south is not as
easy as at many other airports.
Its domestic flights go to Guayaquil, Cuenca, Lago Agrio, Coca, Tarapoa, Esmeraldas,
Manta, Portoviejo, Macas, Tulcán, and many others. Flights
to the Galápagos Islands are reached via Guayaquil. Several
international airlines have offices in Quito; most of them are
around Avenue Amazonas.
The airport provides international
connections to Madrid
, Amsterdam
, New
York
, Atlanta
, Houston
, Miami
, Bogotá, Medellín
, Cali
, Lima, Santiago
, Panama
City
, San José
, Rio de
Janeiro
, São
Paulo
, and many others. The construction of a
new
airport
in the rural parish of Tababela, in the adjacent
valley outside the city limits, began in 2006 and will be finished
by 2010. The Mariscal Sucre International Airport will then
become a big park.
Points of interest
Historic centre
According to UNESCO, Quito has the largest, best-preserved, and
least-altered historic centre (320 hectares) in Latin America,
despite several earthquakes. It was the first city that was
inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage List, in 1978. Some of the
churches are:
El Panecillo
Virgin of El Panecillo
El Panecillo
is a hill located in the middle west of the city at
an altitude of about 9,895 ft (3,016 m) above sea
level. A monument to the Virgin Mary is located on top of El
Panecillo and is visible from most of the city of Quito. In 1976,
the Spanish artist Agustín de la Herrán Matorras was commissioned
by the religious order of the
Oblate to build a 134.5 ft
(41 m)–tall aluminum monument of a
madonna, which was assembled on a high
pedestal on the top of Panecillo. Made of approximately 7,000
pieces of aluminum, the monument was inaugurated on March 28, 1976,
by the 11th
archbishop of Quito,
Pablo Cardinal Muñoz
Vega.
The figure stands on top of a globe, standing on top of a chained
snake , symbolizing her triumph over evil (classic madonna
iconography). What is not so traditional,
however, is her wings. The monument was inspired by the famous
"Virgen de Quito" (Quito's Madonna), also known as "the dancer"
sculpted by
Bernardo de Legarda
in 1734, which now decorates the main altar at the Church of St.
Francisco. This madonna represents a turning point of the
Quito School of Art (one of the most
renowned of the Americas) because it shows a figure with great
movement (practically dancing), which is in contrast to the
traditional static madonnas produced during the 18th century.
La Mariscal
La Mariscal Sucre in Quito has earned the nickname "Gringolandia"
because of its popularity with western torusts. While lacking in
major tourist attractions, it is home to a number of clubs, bars
and restaurants that cater to visitors. There are also many travel
agents that specialize in western travel.
Parks
Metropolitano
Parque
Metropolitano Guanguiltagua is the largest urban park in South America at 1,376 acres (5.5 km²) (as reference, New York's Central Park
is 843 acres [3.4 km²]). The park is located
in northern Quito, on the hill of Bellavista behind Estadio
Olímpico Atahualpa
. The park is suited for mountain biking,
walking, and running. Most of it is
eucalyptus forest with trails, but there also are
numerous sculptures on display.
The park has four sites that can be used for
picnics or barbecues, and the eastern section has a view of
Cotopaxi, Antisana, and the Guayllabamba river basin.
La Carolina
Southern end of La Carolina.
La Carolina is a 165.5-acre (670,000 m²) park in the centre of
the Quito main business area, bordered by the avenues Río Amazonas,
de los Shyris, Naciones Unidas, Eloy Alfaro, and de la República.
This park started from the expropriation of the farm La Carolina in
1939. The modern design of the park was made by the Dirección
Metropolitana de Planificación Territorial (DMPT).
Pope John Paul II headed a great mass in
the park during his visit to Ecuador in 1985. A giant cross has
been built in this place.
Quiteños gather at La Carolina mostly on weekends to play
soccer,
basketball, and
ecua-volley (an Ecuadorian variation of
volleyball with less emphasis on spiking, which
allows more of a throw). Some of the other activities are aerobics,
kite flying, running, snacking, and people watching. The southern
part of the park has a small pond where paddle boats can be rented
and a
skatepark for bicyclists and
skateboarders. Artists are known to perform on weekends at the
park. In the western part of the park, visitors will find the Quito
Exhibition Center with different exhibits every month, the Quito
botanical gardens, and a Vivarium.
La
Carolina more or less resembles New York City's Central Park, since both La Carolina and Central Park are
surrounded by tall buildings in relation to the area of both
parks.
El Ejido
El Ejido is the third-largest park of Quito (after Metropolitan and
La Carolina), and it divides the old part of the city from the
modern one. This park is known for handicrafts available for sale
every Saturday and Sunday, with all pricing subject to negotiation
(that is, haggling). Local painters sell copies of paintings by
Oswaldo Guayasamín [30044],
Eduardo Kingman, and
Gonzalo Endara Crow.
Otavaleños
sell traditional sweaters, ponchos, carpets, and jewelry.
La Alameda
The long triangular La Alameda is located at the beginning of
street Guayaquil, where the historic centre begins. It has an
impressive monument of Simón Bolivar at the apex. There are several
other interesting monuments in this park. In the centre of the park
is the Quito Observatory, which was opened by President García
Moreno in 1873 and is the oldest observatory in Latin America. It
is used for both meteorology and astronomy. At the north end of the
park are two ornamental lakes, where rowboats can be rented.
TeleferiQo
TeleferiQo.
The Aerial tramway Station at Cruz Loma (part of the Pichincha
mountain complex at about . Since July 2005, Quito has had an
aerial tramway, known as the
"Telefériqo", from the city centre to the hill known as Cruz Loma
on the east side of the Pichincha volcano. The ride takes visitors
to an altitude of about 13,400 ft (more than 4,100 m)
where they find a number of restaurants, coffee shops, and a
variety of stores. There are also trails for hiking and areas where
pictures can be taken of Quito. Because of the increased altitude
and the wind on the mountain, it is considerably cooler.
Besides
the aerial tramway to Cruz Loma, the Telefériqo
as a whole is a visitor centre that includes an
amusement park (Vulqano
Park
), fine-dining restaurants, Go Karts, Paint Ball,
shopping malls, an extensive food court, and other
attractions.
Outside the city
The monument at La Mitad del Mundo
La
Mitad del
Mundo (the middle of the world) is a small village
administered by the prefecture of the province of Pichincha,
22 mi (35 km) north of Quito. The village features
a large monument, built on the site where the equator was thought
to have crossed in the early 1980s. There is also a museum that
contains a model of Quito, a planetarium, various exhibits, several
restaurants, an open arena that is occasionally used for
folkloric-dance performances, and a small chapel where couples can
marry with one spouse standing in the northern hemisphere and the
other in the southern. It has since been determined, with the use
of
Global Positioning
System technology, that the actual equator is some 240 meters
north of the monument area.
Pululahua Geobotanical
Reserve, located a few miles northwest from La Mitad del Mundo,
contains the Pululahua volcano, whose
caldera (crater) is visible from a spot easily
accessible by car. It is believed to be one of only a few in the
world with human inhabitants.
Quito Zoo,located near the rural parish of
Guayllabamba, about 12 mi (20 km)
outside Quito, has the biggest collection of native fauna in
Ecuador, including several kinds of animals that are sometimes
targeted in Ecuador in the illegal fur trade.
Some of the other nearby natural attractions are:
Education
Universities
According to the National Council for Higher Education of Ecuador (
CONESUP),
these are the universities founded before the year 2006 in or
around Quito:
Museums
Museo de la Ciudad - A museum dedicated to the
history of Quito. Located just east of the Plaza de Santo
Domingo.
Museo Casa de Sucre - This museum is dedicated to
life of Mariscal José Antonio de Sucre, a hero of Ecuadorian
independence. The museum is located in his old home. The ground
floor has an array of weapons and military relics, many of which
belonged to Sucre himself. The second floor has been restored to
what it might have looked like in Sucre's time.
Museo Nacional del Banco Central del Ecuador -
This art museum houses 5 displays. Each one covers a different time
period, ranging from prehistory to modern Ecuador.
Sports
Professional football teams
Quito is the home city of six prominent football clubs in Ecuador.
Domestically, the city's top three club (El Nacional, Deportivo
Quito and LDU Quito) have won a combined 26 national championships,
which accounts for over half of all championships won.
The teams in Ecuador's First Division (
Serie A and
Serie B) are:
International relations
Twin towns — Sister cities
Quito is
twinned with:
See also
References
External links
Nambillo
cloud forest
Wildlife Refuge
(Rucu & Guagua) volcanoes
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