Hatun Xauxa

Hatun Xauxa stood in the northern Mantaro valley, an important Inca provincial centre near the later city of Jauja. Its broad extent and substantial population made it a major place of administration and ceremony. Communities from other parts of the empire, including Yauyos settlers, lived there, and ceremonies honoured sacred powers such as Pariacaca. The fertile valley and the roads through the central Andes gave the settlement a prominent place in the Inca realm.

In 1533 Hernando Pizarro reached Hatun Xauxa during the Spanish conquest. The following year Francisco Pizarro established Santa Fe de Hatun Xauxa as the first capital of his new Spanish government. Plots were assigned around the main square for a church, a Dominican house and Spanish settlers. The capital was soon moved to Lima on the coast, but Jauja remained an important town in the Mantaro valley. Its history joins the imperial centre of the Incas with the early years of Spanish rule.