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.

What you actually see

• 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.

Honest expectations

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.