Travel Guide Yaguarón

Yaguarón is located 48 km from Asunción on Ruta 1, between Itá and Paraguarí. The city is named after the Guarani cacique Jaguarú (jagua "dog"; ru "father"), who lived on these lands. Founded in 1586 by Friars Luis Bolaños and Alonso de Buenaventura, it was one of the first Franciscan missions in Paraguay. Its late eighteenth-century church is the finest example of Hispano-Guaraní Baroque art. Its interior, with its magnificent artistic work, contrasts with the sobriety of the exterior. A five-minute walk away, the colonial house where José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia spent his childhood, houses a museum in his honour. To stretch out, a short walk takes you to an oratory at the top of Cerro Yaguarón, for a beautiful view of the surrounding valleys. This hill is considered the cradle of Guaraní mythology (there are representations of the mitos at the beginning of the trail), but it is also an important place of Catholic pilgrimage during Holy Week. On the patron saint's day, July 15, the processions are accompanied by the group "Peteke Peteke", a group from the neighbouring compañía of Guayaibity, worthy representatives of ancestral indigenous music, with maracas, flutes and traditional percussion. It is the oldest formation in the country, it is more than 300 years old!