Riobamba years later away from its original location (near a village named Cajabamba on the plains of San Antonio de Aguíscate). The city still retains much architecture from the Spanish period. In the Ecuadorian War of Independence Riobamba first declared independence on November 11, 1820 but was soon retaken. The city finally became part of an independent Gran Colombia in 1822, and then a separate Republic of Ecuador in 1830. On 20 November 2002, 7 people were killed and hundreds wounded when an explosion in the munitions depot at the Galapagos Brigade arsenal in Riobamba set off a series of blasts.
Lord of Miracles of Buga the first printed official accounts is the full story of the Miracle of the Guadalajara river written by Franciscan Friar Francisco G. Rodríguez in 1819, the same year Colombia became independent from Spain. There are records showing that General Simon Bolivar visited Buga among the places he traveled across in his independence campaign for the south west of the country after the battle of Boyacá in his route to Equator. This unique Christ, modeled from materials of the western Colombian Andes receives its name from the region of Buga. During the colonial times the region was populated by the aborigines