The city of Curicó was founded on 9 October 1743 by the Governor of the Kingdom of Chile, don José Antonio Manso de Velasco, with the original name ‘San José de Buena Vista’. In the Mapuche language Curicó means ‘black water’. It is built on a plain 225 meters above water level, flanked by the rivers Teno and Lontué, at the foot of the Buenavista Hill and the banks of the Guaquillo brook.

The city was originally founded where the Viejo monastery now stands, nearby Tutuquén. In 1747 Governor Diego Ortíz de Rozas ordered the city to be moved 5 km further north to its present site, next to the Buena Vista cerro, today known as Carlos Condell, because of the humidity of the original terrain.

Curicó gained its title of ‘city’ in 1830. Today it is a center of communication, supply and commercial transactions of neighboring agricultural industries, making it an attractive and buoyant commercial center.