Sebastian Belacazar was born with the last name Mayano, and gave himself his new last name after a castle near his hometown in order to garner a more noble sounding name. There’s much speculation about his younger life with theories that Sebastian very well may have been on one of Christopher Columbus’ ships to the New World.

On this day December 6^th, in 1535, Sebastian de Belacazar founds the city of Quito, Ecuador. Faced with the task of putting down the indigenous Incans who resisted the Spanish invasion, Sebastian effectively ended the rebellion by killing the Incan general and warrior Rumiñahui. At the same time the Spanish settlers built churches to indoctrinate the people and bring Catholicism to the world.

Quito would remain under Spanish control until the early 19^th century when many South American countries began rebelling against Spain. Quito is Ecuador’s second largest city and its capital. Its metropolitan area is said to have about 2.7 million people (2011). It is situated next to numerous volcanoes, sitting on a plateau with an elevation of 9,200 ft. at its town square. Perhaps Sebastian moved the city to this location for this very reason, the higher you are, the easier to defend.