The new settlement barely survived the colonial period. Alvarado annulled all encomienda rights established in the area under Andres de Cerezeda, and reassigned the villages to the citizens of San Pedro. He sent out expeditions into outlying regions to secure the new town, extend the area of Spanish domination, and commandeer supplies. The new town had 35 Spanish citizens, and Alvarado allocated 200 of his slaves to help build the new town and work the surrounding fields. On 27 June 1536, Don Pedro de Alvarado founded a Spanish town beside the Indian settlement of Choloma, with the name of Villa de Señor San Pedro de Puerto Caballos (modern San Pedro Sula). The Spanish conquest brought about a demographic collapse from which the native population would never recover. The area that is home to the modern city served as a local trade hub for the Mayan and Aztec civilizations.

With a population of 701,200 in the central urban area (2023 calculation) and a population of 1,445,598 in its metropolitan area in 2023, it is the nation's primary industrial center and second largest city after the capital Tegucigalpa, and the largest city in Central America that is not a capital city.īefore the arrival of the Spanish, the Sula Valley was home to approximately 50,000 native inhabitants.

It is located in the northwest corner of the country in the Sula Valley, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean Sea. San Pedro Sula ( Spanish pronunciation: ) is the capital of Cortés Department, Honduras.

Casa maya residencial