Foz do Iguaçu

The Guarani lived along these rivers long before Europeans arrived, and the name comes from their language: y, "river", and guasu, "big". The Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca reached the falls in the 16th century while travelling down the river. Until the 1860s the area lay in territory disputed between Brazil and Paraguay; only after the Paraguayan War was Brazilian possession of this bank secure. The first two settlers, a Brazilian and a Spaniard, are recorded in 1881, and a military colony followed, which became the town of Vila Iguassú in 1910 and a city in 1914.

The aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont visited in 1916 and urged the government to protect the land around the falls, which then belonged to a private owner. The state took it over, and Iguaçu National Park was created in 1939; in 1986 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lebanese and other Arab immigrants began settling in the city from 1940.

The great boom came from the 1960s to the late 1980s. The Friendship Bridge to Paraguay was completed in 1965, and the Itaipu Dam, built with Paraguay from the 1970s and generating since 1984, multiplied the population: from about 34,000 in 1970 it grew to about 136,000 in 1980. The reservoir drowned the Guaíra Falls upstream. In 2010 the federal university for Latin American integration, UNILA, was founded here, and a second bridge to Paraguay, the Integration Bridge, was inaugurated in December 2025.

Foz do Iguaçu describes itself as a city of about 80 nationalities, and the claim shows in its streets. The largest communities after Brazilians include people of Lebanese, Chinese, Paraguayan and Argentine origin, as well as Italian and Portuguese descendants. The Lebanese community, most of the city's Middle Eastern population, supports a large Sunni mosque and many restaurants, and the Chinese community built the Chen Tien Buddhist Temple in 1996. Most residents are Roman Catholic, but the Muslim and Buddhist minorities are large by Brazilian standards, and an annual event, Fenartec, celebrates the mix each May.

Life in a three-country region is part of local identity. Spanish is heard everywhere, Paraguayan and Argentine shoppers cross daily, and many families have ties on more than one side of the rivers. Guarani words survive in place names and local legends, such as the Pombero, a forest creature of Guarani mythology.

The falls dominate how the city sees itself. Residents are known as iguaçuenses, and the spelling of the name itself has been argued over: a 1945 spelling reform changed Iguassú to Iguaçu, and a proposal in 2005 to restore the old spelling, to tie the name more clearly to the falls, was rejected by the council.

About 285,000 people lived in Foz do Iguaçu at the 2022 census, making it one of the largest cities in Paraná, about 640 kilometres west of the state capital, Curitiba. With Ciudad del Este in Paraguay and Puerto Iguazú in Argentina it forms a tri-national urban region of more than 700,000 people.

The economy is built on tourism, trade and services. The city is one of Brazil's most visited destinations for foreign leisure travellers, with around a hundred hotels and inns, and the falls and Itaipu bring visitors all year. Itaipu Binacional is a major employer, and between 2013 and 2023 the dam met more than 13% of Brazil's electricity demand and 90% of Paraguay's consumption. Cross-border commerce shapes daily life: shoppers cross the Friendship Bridge to Ciudad del Este for electronics and imported goods, and the busy BR-277 highway carries trucks between Paraguay and the port of Paranaguá on the Atlantic.

The border also brings problems. Smuggling of goods, cars and weapons through the triple frontier is a long-standing issue, and social problems linked to it are concentrated in poorer districts such as Porto Meira. The Integration Bridge to Presidente Franco, inaugurated in December 2025 mainly for lorries, was designed to reduce traffic on the Friendship Bridge; cars of registered border residents have been allowed across, on a restricted schedule, since September 2026.

Foz do Iguaçu eats like the rest of southern Brazil, with a strong border accent. Churrasco — beef, sausage and chicken on skewers, seasoned with coarse salt and roasted over embers — is the classic meal out, and churrascarias range from simple grills to large restaurants serving rodízio, with waiters carving meat at the table. At lunchtime, self-service buffets in the centre offer rice, beans, salads and grilled meat.

The Lebanese community has given the city a second cuisine. Esfihas, small open or folded pastries with meat or cheese, and kibbeh, fried or baked parcels of bulgur and minced meat, are everyday snacks, and Arab restaurants serve hummus, tabbouleh, grilled kebabs and syrup-soaked pastries. Chinese restaurants reflect another of the city's communities.

Being so close to Argentina and Paraguay, the city shares the region's taste for mate, the bitter herbal infusion drunk from a gourd, and Argentine and Paraguayan products are easy to find on both sides of the bridges.