Villa Rica District is one of eight

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

Oxapampa Province The Oxapampa Province ( es, Provincia de Oxapampa) is the largest of three Provinces of Peru, provinces that make up the Pasco Region in Peru. The capital of the Oxapampa province is the city of Oxapampa. The province is located on the eastern s ...

Pasco Department Pasco () is a department and region in central Peru. Its capital is Cerro de Pasco. Political division The region is divided into 3 provinces ( es, provincias, singular: ), which are composed of 28 districts (''distritos'', singular: ''distrito ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

. The district has an area of and a population of 18,673 in 2017. The capital of the district is the town of Villa Rica which had a population of 11,900 in 2017. The district is the location of the

Cerro de la Sal The Cerro de la Sal or Cerro de Sal, (''Mountain of Salt'') is located in Villa Rica District of Oxapampa Province in Pasco Department, Peru. The Cerro de la Sal was an important source of salt for the pre-Columbian indigenous people of the ...

or Salt Mountain, an important gathering place for

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

of the region and a center of

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

missionary activity in the 17th and 18th centuries. The town was founded in 1928 by settlers of German and Austrian origin from the town of

Pozuzo Pozuzo is a village and district in the Oxapampa Province and Pasco Region of Peru. The village, at an elevation of , is situated near the left bank of the Huancabamba River which is renamed the Pozuzo River after it passes by the village. The pop ...

. The District of Villa Rica is on the eastern slopes of the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

mountains in an area of abundant rainfall and mild temperatures. It is located in the ecological zone of the

Peruvian Yungas The Peruvian Yungas is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion in the Yungas of Peru. Setting The Peruvian Yungas occur on the eastern slopes and valleys of the Peruvian Andes. They form a transition zone between the Southwes ...

, or Ceja de Selva ("eyebrow of the jungle"), the transition zone between the low jungles of the

Amazon Basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

and the

highlands. Elevations in the district range from about to about . Where not cleared for agriculture, the vegetation is tropical and sub-tropical forests.

Cerro de la Sal

The Cerro de la Sal (Mountain of Salt) is located about north of the town of Villa Rica at .Google Earth In pre-Columbian and colonial Peru the indigenous people exploited the salt and transported it downriver by raft to a large number of peoples in the

. The Cerro de la Sal was in the territory of the

Asháninka The Asháninka or Asháninca are an indigenous people living in the rainforests of Peru and in the State of Acre, Brazil. Their ancestral lands are in the forests of Junín, Pasco, Huánuco and part of Ucayali in Peru. Population The Ashá ...

and was also a source of salt for the Amuesha and other peoples in the

.. Downloaded from JSTOR. The Spanish realized the strategic importance of the Cerro de la Sal early in the 17th century.

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

missionaries were attracted to the Cerro de la Sal because of the seasonal congregation of large numbers of indigenous people there. A large number of Christian missions collectively called the Cerro de la Sal missions were established in the region. In 1742, a messianic movement headed by

Juan Santos Atahualpa Juan Santos Atahualpa Apu-Inca Huayna Capac (c. 1710 – c. 1756) was the messianic leader of a successful indigenous rebellion in the Amazon Basin and Andean foothills against the Viceroyalty of Peru in the Spanish Empire. The rebellion began i ...

emptied the missions and the Spanish were expelled from Cerro de la Sal for more than 100 years. In the late 19th and early 20th century settlers of European and Andean origin dispossessed the indigenous people.

Climate

Villa Rica has a Af (tropical, humid, no pronounced dry season) climate under the

Köppen Classification Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author an ...

system. However, the climate borders on Aw (tropical savannah with a dry season) and Cfb (subtropical mountain climate, "eternal spring.") Measured by the

Trewartha climate classification The Trewartha climate classification (TCC) or the Köppen–Trewartha climate classification (KTC) is a climate classification system first published by American geographer Glenn Thomas Trewartha in 1966. It is a modified version of the Köppen ...

system the climate is Arbb (tropical rainforest with warm summers and winters). Villa Rica's climate is modified by its altitude which results in lower average temperatures year than low-elevation tropics. The monthly deviation in average temperatures between the hottest and coldest months is only 1.8 degrees C (3 degrees F). The austral winter months of June and July are fairly dry, but precipitation is abundant during the remainder of the year.

Places of interest

Yanachaga–Chemillén National Park Yanachaga–Chemillén National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Yanachaga-Chemillén) is a protected area located in the region of Pasco, Peru. It preserves part of the rainforests and cloud forests of central Peru. Ecology Flora Forests occupy a ...

References

{{Coord, 10.735, S, 75.268, W, region:PE_type:city_source:kolossus-eswiki, display=title Edible salt