The canton of Cuenca

36 parishes, from the cathedral to the páramo.

Fifteen urban parishes make up the city. Twenty-one rural ones spread across the valleys and hills around it. Each page has its history, local videos and documents.

Read “About Cuenca” first →Explore the parish map

Rural parishes in outline · the city’s 15 urban parishes filled

36 parishes

Urban parishes

BellavistaBellavista is one of Cuenca's northern urban parishes, a broad city-edge territory whose official story is more about neighbourhood growth, streets and public infrastructure than a single visitor landmark. The name is shared by rural parishes elsewhere in Ecuador, so Cuenca's municipal urban ordinance is the anchor for this profile.Read, watch and explore →
CañaribambaCañaribamba is a south-eastern urban parish whose name reaches back to Cañari place history while its current landscape is part of a dense city. It sits between Totoracocha, San Blas, Huayna Cápac and Monay in the municipal urban structure, making river and avenue connections as important as named landmarks.Read, watch and explore →
El BatánEl Batán is a west-central urban parish on the Tomebamba side of Cuenca. Its name preserves a working landscape of mills, craft and water, while its current perimeter includes consolidated streets, public facilities and the western river corridor.Read, watch and explore →
El SagrarioEl Sagrario is Cuenca's first urban parish and the civic and religious core of the historic centre. Its small administrative area contains the Catedral Vieja, Plaza Calderón, traditional markets and streets where the city's colonial and republican layers meet.Read, watch and explore →
El VecinoEl Vecino is a northern urban parish with a particularly legible barrio history. The Rafael María Arízaga corridor, the Rollo monument, the former hat-finishing factory and its murals connect everyday work, independence-era memory and the continuing life of a working neighbourhood.Read, watch and explore →
Gil Ramírez DávalosGil Ramírez Dávalos is the compact central parish named for the Spanish official who founded Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca in 1557. Its story is told through the streets, civic buildings, churches and museums of the historic centre, down to the banks of the Tomebamba.Read, watch and explore →
Hermano MiguelHermano Miguel is Cuenca's fifteenth urban parish, created from the large El Vecino parish to recognise the city's Lasallian educator and saint. It is a newer northern urban administrative area whose identity combines the Santo Hermano Miguel devotion, schools, neighbourhood parks and growth toward the Machángara edge.Read, watch and explore →
Huayna CápacHuayna Cápac occupies the river plain south of the Tomebamba and around the Yanuncay confluence. Its identity links the former Ejido and later urban expansion with university, museum, park and river landscapes, including places that visitors may know better than the parish name.Read, watch and explore →
MachángaraMachángara is the large eastern urban parish named for one of Cuenca's four principal rivers. Its territory includes established neighbourhoods and the expanding eastern edge, where the river, Panamericana, conservation areas and new urbanisation meet.Read, watch and explore →
MonayMonay is an eastern urban parish shaped by housing programmes, commerce, river edges and neighbourhood organisation. It is a good example of Cuenca's later growth: the name belongs to an administrative parish, while Tomebamba, Bosque de Monay and Monay Shopping identify particular sectors and destinations within or around it.Read, watch and explore →
San BlasSan Blas is the historic eastern counterpart to San Sebastián. The urban parish grew from a colonial doctrine for Indigenous residents beyond the Inca road, while the named church and park remain a visible heritage anchor inside a larger modern parish.Read, watch and explore →
San SebastiánSan Sebastián is the historic western parish of Cuenca. Its traditional barrio grew at the edge of the early Spanish grid around an ermita, a boundary cross and later the church and plaza; the present urban parish extends beyond that named barrio, so the two should be kept distinct.Read, watch and explore →
SucreSucre is a south-western urban parish whose name honours Antonio José de Sucre. The parish includes the historic San Roque area, former riverside quintas and busy modern corridors; the old neighbourhood names and today's parish limits overlap but are not the same.Read, watch and explore →
TotoracochaTotoracocha is an eastern urban parish whose name recalls a landscape of totora, pools and wet ground. Its twentieth-century growth is closely tied to planned housing and neighbourhood parks, and today it is a large, busy residential area.Read, watch and explore →
YanuncayYanuncay is a large south-western urban parish named by the river that crosses and helps define it. Its public identity is carried by river paths, bridges, neighbourhood parks, Don Bosco and Loja corridors and the everyday work of residents who participate in city planning.Read, watch and explore →