The territory of the present-day department was inhabited by indigenous people of probable Lenca root, in the old province of Sulaco. Its capital, Tegucigalpa, was founded on September 29, 1578 as Real de Minas de San Miguel de Tegucigalpa, around the rich silver veins of the surrounding hills —its Nahuatl name is said to allude to 'hills of silver'. Mining was the very reason for the Spanish settlement, which drew miners from across the empire.
During the colonial period it was a prosperous mining town that rivaled the official capital, Comayagua, and whose wealth was reflected in the treasures of its churches, many of them donated by kings of Spain to the rich miners. In 1880, President Marco Aurelio Soto moved the capital of the Republic to Tegucigalpa, and since then the city has been the political and administrative center of Honduras.
Together with its neighbor Comayagüela, on the other side of the Choluteca River, it forms the Central District, today the country's largest city, with its historic center of steep streets presided over by the Cathedral of San Miguel, the Central Park and the historic Villa Roy.
The department was established on June 28, 1825, in the first constitution of the State of Honduras, as part of the territorial organization of the young republic. For a long time it was simply called Tegucigalpa, after its capital city.
On January 11, 1943, President Tiburcio Carías Andino changed the name of the department to Francisco Morazán, commemorating the centennial of the death of the great caudillo of Central American union, born precisely in Tegucigalpa in 1792. A liberal soldier and statesman, Morazán presided over the Federal Republic of Central America and became the foremost symbol of the unionist ideal; he was executed by firing squad in Costa Rica on September 15, 1842.
Thus the department that houses the capital bears the name of the national hero par excellence, whose ideal of regional integration lives on in the country's symbolism.
The mountains surrounding Tegucigalpa hold some of the most charming colonial towns in the country. Santa Lucía, perched on the hillside, was an important mining town during the colonial period and preserves its church with a Black Christ that, according to tradition, was given by King Philip II around 1594 to the mining camp of Santa Lucía. Valle de Ángeles, a former mining center, reinvented itself in the 20th century as an artisan town and is today a tourist destination famous for its work in wood, leather, ceramics and filigree.
Farther south, Ojojona is another colonial town of cobblestone streets, adobe houses with red roofs and old churches, a cradle of pottery and of the mining tradition of central Honduras. Nearby are also Cedros, Sabanagrande and Cantarranas (San Juan de Flores), with their colonial heritage.
These 'charming towns', a short distance from the capital, form a much-loved circuit of weekend getaways for Hondurans and visitors, where the mining and colonial heritage is preserved almost intact.
On the mountains northeast of Tegucigalpa stretches La Tigra National Park, declared in 1980 the first national park in Honduras. Its cloud forest, which in the past supplied the capital with water, housed the camps of the Rosario Mining Company at El Rosario and San Juancito —a flourishing silver-mining enclave in the early 20th century, with electric light and even ice long before the capital itself.
Today La Tigra is a haven of biodiversity, with quetzals, orchids and trails, and a green lung at the city's gates, one of the favorite hiking destinations for the capital's residents. Its industrial ruins of the old mine recall the era when silver drove the region's economy.
The department of Francisco Morazán thus combines the bustle of the capital with mountains, forests and historic towns, in a highland landscape that was for centuries the mining heart of the country.
As the seat of the capital, Francisco Morazán is the political, university and cultural heart of Honduras. In Tegucigalpa are concentrated the Presidency, the National Congress, the Supreme Court, the ministries and the embassies, as well as the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH), the country's principal seat of learning.
The capital has been the setting of the great events of contemporary Honduran history: coups d'état, democratic transitions, protests and celebrations. Its heritage includes the Manuel Bonilla National Theater, the Basilica of Suyapa —where the Virgin of Suyapa, patroness of Honduras, is venerated— and museums such as the Museum of National Identity.
From the old silver city to the metropolis of more than a million inhabitants, Francisco Morazán brings together the Honduras of power and that of the mountains, between the asphalt of the capital and the cloud forests that surround it.