Loja
Ecuador · Americas
About Loja
Loja, formerly Loxa and fully City of the Immaculate Conception of Loja (Spanish: Ciudad de la Inmaculada Concepción de Loja), is the capital of Ecuador's Loja Province. It is located in the Cuxibamba valley in the south of the country, sharing borders with the provinces of Zamora-Chinchipe and other cantons of the province of Loja. Loja holds a rich tradition in the arts, and for this reason is known as the Music and Cultural Capital of Ecuador. The city is home to two major universities.
The city has a population of about 203,000, and is situated 2060 m (6758 ft) above sea level. It has a mild Andean climate, ranging between 16 and 30 °C.
Loja was definitively founded on 8 December 1548 by the Spanish captain Alonso de Mercadillo in the Cuxibamba valley, after an earlier mid-1540s site near La Toma in the Catamayo canyon proved unhealthy. Contemporary and official accounts explain that the relocation followed severe seismic damage and malaria outbreaks, and that the town took its name from Mercadillo's birthplace, Loja in Spain.
About a century after its establishment the town was destroyed by...
Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.