[4] Located 1,850 meters above sea level, Intibucá has a cool and often foggy climate, hence the nickname "La ciudad del manto blanco" (the city of the white mantle).

Stratigraphic samples contain limes, clays, sand, gravel and remains of vegetation, indicating that a lake existed in the past.

Many wet or swampy areas along with water in the upper layers of the subsoil provide evidence of the transition from a lake bed.

Pre-Columbian peoples mined obsidian deposits in the area, which was crafted into artifacts and traded among groups in Mesoamerica as early as 1,000 BC.

[9] At the time of the Spanish conquest, the region was populated predominantly by Lencas, whose origin is still a source of ongoing debate among anthropologists and historians.

[13] Before the Spanish conquest, there were two towns in this region, Lentercali and Eramani, while name Intibucá appeared in a report made in 1582 by the governor Alonso de Contreras Guevara of Honduras.

[14] The Spanish crown appointed Francisco de Cerdá[15] mayor to govern and settle disputes among the indigenous people of the region.

Ladino merchants and ranchers came from Comayagua and other Honduran towns, Guatemala, and El Salvador and bought and appropriated lands from the indigenous residents of Eramani.

Rather than fight with their neighbors, the Lencas abandoned buildings in the town center, including their church, the first and oldest of the region constructed in 1790, and their cemetery.

[22] The organizational structure of the Auxiliaria de la Vara Alta, while lost elsewhere in the region, was retained into the 20th century in the municipalities of Intibucá and Yamaranguila.

In this celebration, the patron saint, in Intibucá La Virgen de Candelaria, is carried to alternating villages in succeeding years.

The presence of Catholic characteristics in this celebration is due to the Church's effort to give a religious aspect to an event that was so important for the indigenous people.

The use of rods, masks, flags, and music of drums and chirimía provide ancient symbols from antiquity that after a long fight agreement was reached to bring peace.