This central plaza area has been preserved and is open to the public as a cultural area and center of commerce. The town of Alburquerque was built in the traditional Spanish villa pattern: a central plaza surrounded by government buildings, homes, and a church. Īfter 1821, Mexico also had a military presence there. Albuquerque was a farming and shepherding community and strategically located trading and military outpost along the Camino Real, for the other already established for the Tiquex and Hispano towns in the area, such as Barelas, Corrales, Isleta Pueblo, Los Ranchos, and Sandia Pueblo. In 1706, Albuquerque was founded as a villa of Nuevo México, New SpainĪlbuquerque was founded in 1706 as an outpost as La Villa de Alburquerque by Francisco Cuervo y Valdés in the provincial kingdom of Santa Fe de Nuevo México and named after the Viceroy Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 10th duke of Alburquerque, which is from a town in Spain. The Navajo, Apache, and Comanche peoples were also likely to have set camps in the Albuquerque area, as there is evidence of trade and cultural exchange between the different Native American groups going back centuries before European arrival.
Two Tiwa pueblos lie specifically on the outskirts of the present-day city, both of which have been continuously inhabited for many centuries: Sandia Pueblo, which was founded in the 14th century, and the Pueblo of Isleta, for which written records go back to the early 17th century, when it was chosen as the site of the San Agustín de la Isleta Mission, a Catholic mission. Of these, 12 or 13 were densely clustered near present-day Bernalillo and the remainder were spread out to the south. By the 1500s, there were around 20 Tiwa pueblos along a 60-mile (97 km) stretch of river from present-day Algodones to the Rio Puerco confluence south of Belen. The Tanoan and Keresan peoples had lived along the Rio Grande for centuries before European settlers arrived in what is now Albuquerque. Petroglyphs carved into basalt in the western part of the city bear testimony to an early Native American presence in the area, now preserved in the Petroglyph National Monument.
The city is a hub for technology and media companies, historic landmarks, the University of New Mexico, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, the Gathering of Nations, the New Mexico State Fair, as well as a diverse restaurant scene featuring both New Mexican cuisine and cuisines from around the world. Located in the Albuquerque Basin, the city is flanked by the Sandia Mountains to the east and the West Mesa to the west, with the Rio Grande and bosque flowing from north-to-south. It is the principal city of the Albuquerque metropolitan area, which had 916,528 residents as of July 2020, and it is part of the Albuquerque–Santa Fe–Las Vegas combined statistical area which had a population of 1,162,523 as of January 2020. The 2020 census found the population of the city to be 564,559, making Albuquerque the 32nd-most populous city in the United States and the fourth-largest in the Southwest. Named in honor of the Viceroy of New Spain, the 10th Duke of Alburquerque, the city was an outpost on El Camino Real linking Mexico City to the northernmost territories of New Spain. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its 1706 founding by Nuevo México governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdés as La Villa de Alburquerque. Albuquerque ( / ˈ æ l b ə ˌ k ɜːr k i/ ( listen) AL-bə-kur-kee Spanish: ), abbreviated as ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S.