Peru
Vitcos ranks #2,251 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #12 of the 18 mapped in Peru. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,590 times in the last 60 days, more than 63% of the atlas. See how Peru compares in the castle statistics.
Vitcos was a residence of Inca nobles and a ceremonial center of the Neo-Inca State (1537–1572). The archaeological site of ancient Vitcos, called Rosaspata, is in the Vilcabamba District of La Convención Province, Cusco Region in Peru. The ruins are on a ridge overlooking the confluence of two small rivers and the village of Pucyura. The Incas had occupied Vilcabamba, the region in which Vitcos is located, about AD 1450, establishing major centers at Machu Picchu, Choquequirao, Vitcos, and Vilcabamba. Vitcos was often the residence of the rulers of the Neo-Inca state until the Spanish conquest of this last stronghold of the Incas in 1572.
The location of Vitcos was later forgotten until 1911 when explorer Hiram Bingham identified the ruins known to local Peruvians as Rosaspata (Quechua: Rusaspata) as ancient Vitcos. The ruins of the Inca ceremonial center of Ñusta Hispana (the "White Rock") are about 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) south of the Inca palace that is the outstanding feature of Rosaspata.
Text adapted from “Vitcos” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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