Paucartambo name means “flowery inn”, is located on the east of the city of Cuzco, at a strategic point in the commercial transit between the capital of Tahuantinsuyo and the jungle valley of Kosñipata.
The lands of Paucartambo constituted a coca-growing region since ancient times. According to the chronicles, the coca leaves motivated the Incas, in the times of the sovereign Inca Roca, to conquer said territory, the gate of Antisuyo.
Later, Pachacútec entered with his army through Paucartambo, in order to subdue the brave Mojos Indians. We also know from the chroniclers that during the Spanish conquest, the Greek captain Pedro de Candia with a host of three hundred soldiers and more than half a thousand indigenous people, wishing to conquer the mythical country of Ambaya, passed through the Paucartambo region, which It was recognized by him and his people with the names of “Avisca” and “Pacual”. Aware of the wealth and properties of the coca in that region, the colonial power founded a township there to control the distribution of this leaf among the aborigines.
At the end of the 18th century, Paucartambo was listed as a sub-delegation of the Cusco administration, and as a proud city for possessing one of the most impressive bridges in the Peruvian viceroyalty.
Proclaimed independence, Paucartambo was recognized by the liberator Simón Bolívar as a province on June 21, 1825. Currently, this region of Cusco brings together the districts of Paucartambo, Kosñipata, Colquepata, Challabamba, Huancarani and Caicay.