A
Taíno settlement called
Aymamón was located close to the
Culebrinas River.
Bahía de Aguada (Aguada Bay) in Aguada has historically been recognized as the location where
Christopher Columbus first landed in
Puerto Rico during his
second voyage on 19 November 1493. However, it is believed by most historians that
Bahía de Añasco (Añasco Bay) in the neighboring town of
Añasco was the place of Columbus’ first landing and stay of two days in Puerto Rico before continuing to
La Navidad, first European settlement in the
Americas, in
Haiti in
Hispaniola. In July 1510, Cristóbal de Sotomayor received control of the area from
Juan Ponce de León and renamed the town
Villa de Sotomayor (Sotomayor Village). However, in 1511 the settlement was attacked and burned by the local
Taínos. That same year, the Spanish crown ordered a
monastery be established in Puerto Rico, and the
Ermita de Espinar was founded. The name of the area was then changed to
San Francisco de Asís de la Aguada, since the
friars were
Franciscan. The monastery was finished in 1516. In 1526,
King Charles I of Spain officially founded the
Aguada settlement. However, in 1529, Taínos attacked the monastery killing the friars and burning the settlement. The
Taínos, indigenous people of Puerto Rico, were believed to have practiced
polytheism. As the Spanish began to colonize the
Caribbean area, they wanted to convert the natives to
Catholicism. The Caribs destroyed a church of
Franciscans in Aguada and killed five of its members in 1579. Still, Aguada resurfaced and became a stopover point for ships on their way to Spain from South America. On September 17, 1692, King
Charles II of Spain emitted a Royal Decree declaring Aguada a "village" and assigning Captain Juan López de Segura as War Lieutenant and Ordinary Mayor of the
Villa de San Francisco de Asís de la Aguada. Puerto Rico was ceded by Spain in the aftermath of the
Spanish–American War under the terms of the
Treaty of Paris of 1898 and became an unincorporated territory of the United States. In 1899, the
United States Department of War conducted its first census of Puerto Rico finding that the population of Aguada was 10,581. In the early years of the 20th century, two disasters affected the town of Aguada. First, a huge fire in 1912 destroyed most of the town buildings, including the old
city hall, which contained all the city archives. On October 11, 1918, at an earthquake known as the
San Fermín earthquake destroyed the church and other structures. At
Rio Culebrinas, 1000 kg blocks of limestone from the wrecked Columbus monument were carried inland to distances of by waves high.
Hurricane María on September 20, 2017, triggered numerous landslides in Aguada, with its strong winds and heavy rain. Infrastructure and an estimated 8,000 homes in Aguada were damaged or destroyed. Two police officers died when they were caught in the flooded
Culebrinas River. On July 16, 2023 a
tornado touched down in Aguada, producing
EF1 damage which included tearing a roof from a house and damage to power lines. The city is notorious for stormy weather.
Folklore is said to have disembarked in Aguada (The Aguada Shark Killer) is
folklore that comes out of Aguada and was written around 1640. It tells of a young man who was accustomed to fighting sharks but was without his
religious charm. When asked to demonstrate his shark-fighting capabilities to visiting Spanish dignitaries, he hesitated. All day and night he pondered whether he could fight a shark without his religious charm. Even though the Spaniards had increased their offer to 3 bars of gold the matador was hesitant. In the morning, as the shark came into the bay, the spectators who were gathered on the beach yelled in anticipation, and , as the young man was called, was unable to stop himself. He jumped into the open sea pursuing the shark and fought it with his bare hands. He was nearly killed and after receiving his prize of gold, vowed to never again fight a shark. ==Geography==