San Ignacio Guazu

San Ignacio Guazú was founded in 1609 and is the oldest of the Jesuit missions in what is now Paraguay, the first of the reductions established among the Guarani in this region, and although the great church has gone the college building survives around a courtyard and holds the Diocesan Museum with a substantial collection of mission-period wooden sculpture: saints, apostles, angels and Christs carved by Guarani craftsmen, many still with their original polychrome. The town around it is the largest in Misiones department and keeps its mission plaza layout. Santa Maria de Fe and Santa Rosa are close, and the three make a circuit of the Franciscan and Jesuit heritage of the department.

History

The Jesuit fathers Marcial de Lorenzana and Francisco de San Martín founded San Ignacio on 29 December 1609, led to his lands by the cacique Arapysandú, and the mission was formally established in 1610 as San Ignacio Guazú. That February Father Roque González de Santa Cruz organised it as the centre of the Jesuit missions in Paraguay, and Jesuits set out from here to found Santa Rosa, Santiago, Santa María, San Cosme y Damián and Encarnación (Wikipedia, San Ignacio, Paraguay).

Highlights

• The college building - the surviving mission structure around its courtyard.
• The sculpture collection - the Guarani-carved saints and figures.
• Original polychrome - the surviving paint on the sculptures.
• The mission plaza - the town square laid out on the mission plan.

When to go

April to October in the cooler dry season. The museum keeps daytime hours with a midday closure. It sits on Ruta 1 and is an easy stop on the road between Asuncion and Encarnacion.

Practical notes

The mission church is gone and only the college survives. The museum keeps a long midday break. Labelling is in Spanish. The town is workaday outside the plaza.

Nearby

Santa Maria de Fe lies northeast; Santa Rosa is east.

Key facts