Shortly after the Spanish Conquest in the sixteenth century, groups of explorers and missionaries settled in the region alongside the local chieftains, digging gold and silver out of the rich mines in the area. News of the mineral wealth of the area drew hundreds of adventurers and fortune hunters, who wasted little time in setting up operations in the area, staking out mines and establishing residences.
This flurry of activity gave Cerro de Pasco its reputation as a mining town, a reputation which it still enjoys today. Many buildings, however, date back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a valuable heritage of the colonial era.
Here, visitors can taste the delicious and traditional pachamanca (meat and vegetables cooked over hot stones underground) to the strains of the Chonguinada (a local festive dance) or witness in May the time-honored Festival of Las Cruces, the main religious celebration in the region and which involves the city's neighborhoods.
