Gualaceo is located in the Sierra Region of Ecuador, nestled in the Santa Bárbara valley in the Hoya de Paute, at an altitude of 2,330 meters above sea level.

[2] What is now Gualaceo was a stately center that was part of the Cañari Hatun Cañar - Shabalula diarchy.

[3] From 1547, the bachelor Gómez de Tapia served as chaplain to the miners of this settlement, replacing the priest Alonso Pablos.

In that same year, Antonio de la Gama was appointed Governor and Judge of indigenous people.

[4][5] In the year 1557, Don Gil Ramírez Dávalos arrived at the mining town of Santa Ana de los Ríos on the banks of the Santa Bárbara (today Gualaceo) with the order, from Viceroy Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, to found a new city.