The city was founded by Roman Mario Valencia and Segundo Henao, people who went from Salento making explorations through the region, in the final part of the antioqueña foundations.

Historic and colonial architecture is still preserved, with houses of baroque and tapia tread, which are accompanied by innumerable stories, tradition, large balconies, colorful gates, and mud roofs.

It lies in the Andean zone flanking the Central Cordillera, east of the department of Quindío in the centre-western part of the country, within the area known as the Eje Cafetero ("Coffee Axis").

Calarcá is bordered by the municipalities of Salento to the north, Cajamarca in Tolima to the east, Córdoba, Buenavista, Pijao in Quindío and Caicedonia in the Valle del Cauca to the south, and La Tebaida y Armenia to the west.

[3] Just like in others towns in the Quindío, the economy is based on Colombian coffee crops, plantain and manioc.

Peñas Blancas (English: white cliffs) consists of a crag and three vertical rock faces located on the western slopes of the Central Cordillera of the Andes near Calarcá.

There are a large number of solutional caves and rock shelters inside the cliff, but access is very difficult.

The caves are believed by some local people to be the location of a legendary treasure hidden by an indigenous Pijao tribal leader, the Cacique Calarcá (from whom the nearby town derives its name), during his battle against the Spanish colonialists The cliffs are a landmark of the region, and can be seen clearly from the nearby towns of Armenia and Calarcá.