Travel Guide Luque

"Welcome to the city of music and crafts, and the capital of South American football! "Luque is proud of its artisanal production. Its chiselers, violin makers and leather engravers are renowned and the people of Asunción love to come on Saturdays to the General Aquino Avenue, nicknamed the "Avenue of Jewellers", to buy beautiful silver and gold filigree jewellery. The musicians go to the workshops on the outskirts, on the Asunción-Luque road, around Km 12, to find the most beautiful harps and guitars. The city of Jose Luis Chilavert is also the headquarters of the South American Football Confederation. Fans should not miss a visit to the museum dedicated to South American football. Luque's inhabitants love the sport, as you might have guessed, but they are also real fans of their club, Sportivo Luqueño. The yellow and blue colours of the jersey (and the municipal flag) are everywhere in Luque: on the power poles, garbage cans, signs, buses... On the outskirts of the huge Feliciano Cáceres stadium, on match nights, you can hear the fans shouting "Kure Luque, Kure Luque"... kure means "pig" in Guarani, and it's the club's mascot! This goes back a long way, when German Luque farmers used to send their pigs to Asunción by train. When the matches were played in the capital, Luque players and fans took the same train as the pigs. The fans of the opposing team did not hesitate to shout: "Luque's pigs are coming! "Luque still has its railway station, the second oldest in the country, restored in 2019 after having been abandoned for some twenty years. Listed as a national heritage site, it deserves a short visit. The historic centre is concentrated around three squares. The first one's not really relevant. The high church of Virgen del Rosario, dating from 1930, is not exceptional and the trees do not provide much shade. We see some beautiful colonial houses, but much less than around the other two squares. The latter is reached via Calle Mariscal López, a pretty pedestrian street framed by beautiful colonnaded houses, with handicraft shops, ice cream parlours and the Real restaurant, which has a pleasant terrace to sit down in the Peatonal. Mariscal López Square has a large square with a stage for cultural events. Don't miss the iron sculptures of the Rincón Cultural, which pay homage in an original way to the artists and chipas sellers of Luque. Next door, General Elizardo Aquino Square is named after a luqueño hero of the Triple Alliance War. In the alley between the two squares, you can see tereré renters and an authentic tatakuá.