Gracias () is a small Honduran town/municipality that was founded in 1536, and is the capital of Lempira Department. The municipality has a population of 57,182 and the town a population of 16,680 (2020 calculation). It is located in the mountainous center of western Honduras. Etymology The word gracias means "thanks" in Spanish. It is said that upon arriving at the site of the city of Gracias, the Spanish explorers, tired after having trekked through the mountainous terrain, said "Gracias a Dios hemos llegado a tierra plana," meaning "Thank God we have arrived at flat land." History Foundation The city was founded in October 1536 under the name of "Gracias a Dios" by Gonzalo de Alvarado y Chávez, Pedro de Alvarado's first cousin, in a place called Opoa, near the banks of the Higuito River. During The viceregal era, Gracias was very important for the Spanish and had some years of growth, before being eclipsed by the cities of Antigua Guatemala and Comayagua. On January 14, 1539, the city of Gracias a Dios was named Municipality by Don Juan de Montejo Note 1 Mass was celebrated there by the then Bishop of Honduras Cristóbal de Pedraza. Headquarters of the Royal Court and Chancery of Los Confines By means of a Royal Certificate dated September 3, 1543 given in the city of Valladolid (Kingdom of Castile), on May 16, 1544 it was established as the seat of the Royal Court of the Confines, officially called "Royal Court and Chancery of the Confines of Guatemala and Nicaragua ". Its first president was Alonso de Maldonado y Solís (1543-1548), along with several oidores with instruction in jurisprudence. The appointed magistrates were: Diego de Herrera, Pedro Ramírez de Quiñonez and Don Juan Roxel, all Spanish. This audience was in charge of applying the laws emanating from Spain and representing the rights of the Crown in the face of land claims, encomiendas and taxes, as well as administering justice in various instances and fulfilling another varied range of duties. The Audiencia was transferred in 1549 to the city of Santiago de Guatemala (today Antigua Guatemala). Perhaps this decision was unfortunate for the unity of Central America, since it placed the headquarters of the higher authorities at the eastern end of the kingdom of Guatemala, while Gracias offered a much more central location, intermediate between the northern and southern provinces. In 1863, after the general elections