The Jesuit Missions of Trinidad and Jesús

The ruins of La Santísima Trinidad de Paraná and nearby Jesús de Tavarangue, UNESCO World Heritage Sites in southern Paraguay, are the country's most impressive historic monuments, the evocative red-stone remains of the great Jesuit mission towns. In these reducciones of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jesuit priests and the indigenous Guaraní people built a remarkable, semi-independent Christian society of churches, workshops, schools and music. The roofless sandstone churches, carved friezes and plazas, glowing warm at sunset, are hauntingly beautiful.

What you actually see

• Trinidad - the largest, best-preserved mission and its great church.
• The carved friezes - the angel-musician stone carvings.
• Jesús de Tavarangue - the unfinished second mission nearby.
• The sunset light - the red stone glowing in the low sun.

When to go

April to October, for cooler, drier weather, as the south can be very hot and humid in summer; late afternoon is the most beautiful time, when the low sun turns the red sandstone golden, and Trinidad also opens some evenings for a sound-and-light show.

Honest expectations

The missions are remote, in the deep south near the Argentine border, so reaching them takes a dedicated trip, usually from Encarnación, and they are ruins requiring some imagination, ideally with a guide, to picture the extraordinary society that once thrived here. Quiet and uncrowded, that solitude is part of their poignant appeal. The warm red stonework and haunting history make them genuinely moving.

Nearby

The riverside city of Encarnación and its beaches are close by.