The region surrounding Riobamba was inhabited by the
Puruhá nation before the advance of the
Inca Empire during the late 15th century. The Puruha fiercely resisted the Inca efforts to conquer the north of today's Ecuador. The Inca
Huayna Capac had to make an alliance in order to
pacify the tribes who sided with Condorazo, the general of the Puruha nation. He allied with the Schyris confederation, also known as the Caran-Quitu people, believed to have developed the
Kingdom of Quito in the northern Andes. The 18th-century Jesuit historian
Juan de Velasco described this confederation as a group of tribes ruled by the Duchicela dynasty. Huayna Capac took the princess Paccha as his wife and gave special treatment and social status privileges to the higher castes of these new subjects. The son of this alliance was
Atahualpa, who served as the last king of the Inca. Following the Spanish invasion and conquest of the Inca and their allies, Riobamba was founded on 15 August 1534 in the San Miguel plains by
Diego de Almagro. It is considered the first city to be established in what is modern-day Ecuador. In 1563, the city became part of the
Spanish Empire's newly formed
Royal Audience of Quito. Although the city was completely destroyed by an
earthquake in 1797, it was rebuilt a few years later from its original location. The second site was near a village named
Cajabamba on the plains of San Antonio de Aguíscate. The city still retains much architecture from the Spanish colonial period. During the
Ecuadorian War of Independence, Riobamba first declared independence on November 11, 1820, but was soon retaken by Crown forces. In 1822 the city became part of
Gran Colombia, which gained independence from Spain that year. In 1830 the Republic of Ecuador established its own independence as a nation.
20th century to present The Monumental Raúl Dávalos, a 13,000-person capacity bullring, opened here in 1952. In 2011 the nation voted by referendum to prohibit matadors killing the bulls in such
corridas, a policy also followed by Portugal. This has resulted in a dramatic decline in related tourism, with a substantial loss in revenues, especially in Quito. On 20 November 2002, seven people were killed and hundreds wounded from a series of explosions at the munitions depot at the Galapagos Brigade arsenal in Riobamba. Such was the force of the explosion that many residents said they first thought there had been an earthquake or volcanic eruption. Windows were blown out more than 1.5 kilometres from the arsenal, and many of the injured suffered lacerations from flying shards of glass. According to Colonel
Arturo Cadena, a military spokesman in
Quito, the initial explosion occurred during maintenance work inside the dump. In April 2003, the army published its final investigatory report of the explosion. It concluded that the
Santa Barbara munitions factory was directly responsible for the explosion, which the army classified as an accident. == Geography ==