Colonial architecture
The architecture developed with the arrival of the Spanish settlers, in the area of the current Asunción, on the banks of the Paraguay River. The first fortifications were followed by an organized city, the first of a long line, with the construction of various buildings, such as churches built in brick, palaces and numerous monuments and houses in European style.
Colonial architecture in Paraguay was inspired by the traditional elements of Spanish architecture, such as exterior galleries and balconies, while incorporating Indian construction techniques, adapted to the country. Originally, the colonial house was quite different from the one we see today. It consisted of walls of palm and earth, all consolidated with animal blood (estaqueado walls) and a roof made of straw and palm.
It was not until the middle of the 16th century that the first houses with adobe walls protected by tile roofs appeared. Walking around the capital Asuncion, several places are a perfect testimony of the traditional colonial house: the Casa de la Independencia, built in the mid 1770s, the Casa Castelvi and its beautiful gardens, and the group of houses of the Manzana de la Rivera, which today serve as a museum and exhibition space.
From the colonial architecture, we also remember the will to make color an essential element of some houses. For the inhabitants of the cities, a good part of the population lives in small houses with pastel colors of brick or stucco, with tiled roofs and which also have iron grills on the windows. These houses are pink, blue, green, yellow and catch the eye.
The Jesuit missions
The history of Paraguay is marked by a very particular episode: from 1609 to 1767, the Society of Jesus set up within its Jesuit Guaraní missions, a kind of theocratic state with a community organization. Within these "reductions", the natives enjoyed protection and the same rights as the Spanish colonists, while learning the arts (music, sculpture, architecture, etc., from the old continent). The Jesuits introduced the use of stone and wood for the construction of arches, porticos and building facades. Among the thirty missions of the River Plate basin, the most beautiful testimonies are the ruins of the reductions of Santísima Trinidad de Paraná and Jesús de Tavarangue, included in the World Heritage List in 1993. The paintings and sculpted reliefs appear, expression of the figurative principles of the missionary iconography. The missions had different styles according to the periods, but all of them present a mixture of indigenous elements and Christian attributes, with a symbolism that testifies to various influences, baroque, Romanesque and Greek. Despite their World Heritage status, the Jesuit missions of Trinidad and Jesús remain little visited. As for the architecture in the old Franciscan missions, whose development began before that of the Jesuit missions, it is much more sober. Not much remains of these missions, except for carefully restored churches. The one in Yaguarón, built between 1755 and 1772, is the most significant example of "Guaraní baroque" architecture. It is simple on the outside, with elegant lines, but is very rich in ornamentation on the inside.
19th and 20th century architecture
It was during the López presidencies, from 1840 to 1865, that the first changes appeared in Paraguayan architecture, especially in Asunción. The presidency called on European architects to modernize the city. Walking through the historic center of Asunción, we discover the works of the Italian Alejandro Ravizza, nicknamed "the Architect of López", who created monuments such as the Panteón Nacional, the Palacio de López, La Recova de la Aduana or the Cabildo, buildings that reveal a neoclassical Italianate style. Other places, such as the Central Station or the Arsenal, are the work of the Englishman Alonso Taylor. At the end of the war of the Triple Alliance, from 1870 onwards, it was once again European architects who worked on the reconstruction. Buildings emerged that differed from the academicism of the López family, such as the Casa Massi, the Casa Fratta and the ex-Gran Hotel Hispania, which were designed in the Art Nouveau style introduced by the Catalan engineer Enrique Clari. Other great names that mark a certain revival include Juan Colombo, José Peris, Carlos Offer, Sebastián Grassi, Matéo Talia, and, for local architects, Ángel Alfaro and Tomás Remeiro Pereira. The Faculty of Architecture was created during the Stroessner dictatorship, where models dictated by modern functionalism and fascist aesthetics were developed, without originality. Some architects managed to stand out, such as Jenaro Pindú and Carlos Colombino. The new generation was made up of architects who wanted to break away from the old patterns of the dictatorship. Juan José Giancreco, Pedro Barrail, Solano Benítez and Javier Corvalán are among them, and today they are all involved in innovative architecture.
