In pre-Hispanic times it was a place of certain importance, where there was a settlement of the Huetar indigenous people. Its name is a Castilianization of the name of the Huetar king Uxarrací. At the beginning of 1563, a monarch named Tuxustí reigned in Ujarrás, who along with other indigenous kings visited the Mayor Juan Vázquez de Coronado in the city of Garcimuñoz on January 1 of that year.
By mid-1564, however, the town of Ujarrás, along with those of Atirro, Corrosí and Turrialba, had rebelled against Spanish authority. The Spanish Agustín de Hinojosa carried out a raid on Ujarrás, and Vázquez de Coronado himself went to the place to try to pacify the indigenous people. However, it did not take long for new friction to occur and at the end of February 1568 another king of Ujarrás, Turichiquí, led a great uprising against the Mayor Pedro Venegas de los Ríos, in which the indigenous people of Guarco, Turrialba, Ujarrás, Corrosí participated. and Atirro.