Jauja

Jauja is a city in the Mantaro Valley of the Junín Region of central Peru and the capital of Jauja Province, about 45 kilometres northwest of Huancayo at an altitude of 3,400 metres, with 15,432 inhabitants in 2015 according to the article. Before the Incas the area lay in the Xauxa-Wanka confederation, and under the Incas the provincial centre of Hatun Xauxa stood on the royal road that linked Cusco to Quito. After the Spanish took Cusco in 1533, Francisco Pizarro established Xauxa as the first capital of Spanish Peru in April 1534, before Lima took that role. Its name survives in the Spanish expression país de Jauja, a land of milk and honey. The dry air made it a refuge for tuberculosis patients, and visitors come for its narrow streets of blue-painted houses and the nearby Laguna de Paca. Each year the city marks the anniversary of its Spanish foundation on 25 April.