The town was founded in the early 18th century. On 8 August 1705, the Spanish colonial captain Don Juan García de la Candelaria acquired the area then called "Los Llanos" from the Spanish crown and founded his estate with four ranches, later the first settlers named it Santa Rosa, and later
Santa Rosa de Los Llanos. A
tobacco industry developed in the early 18th Century and in 1765 the town was picked as the site for La Real Factoria del Tabacos, the Royal Tobacco Company, a Spanish crown company. Later, the
Gracias a Dios Department was split in two departments, becoming
Copán department and
Lempira department. The town was on various occasions the capital of the State of Honduras. On 7 May 1862 the nation's President Don Victoriano Castellanos Cortes, issued Legislative Decree No. 3, giving the country the title of "Republic of Honduras" instead of "State of Honduras." In 1865, the town was renamed Santa Rosa de Copán. Its Catedral de Santa Rosa, dedicated to
Saint Rosa, is the
cathedral episcopal see of the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán (established on 1916.02.02). ==Climate==