Asunción

Juan de Salazar de Espinosa founded a fort on the east bank of the Paraguay River on 15 August 1537, the feast of the Assumption, which gave it its name. In 1541 a cabildo, a town council, turned the fort into a civilian town, and an alliance with local Guaraní chiefs, sealed by marriage, created the mestizo society that still speaks their language. For decades it was the base for Spanish expansion across the south: expeditions left it to found Villarrica, Corrientes, Santa Fe and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and in 1580 to refound Buenos Aires, which earned it the name "Mother of Cities".

On the night of 14 to 15 May 1811 rebels in the city forced the Spanish governor to surrender, and Paraguay became independent. Under Dr Francia roads were built and the streets named; Carlos Antonio López and his son Francisco Solano López added the cathedral, the palace and the beginnings of the Pantheon. The War of the Triple Alliance ended that era: the city fell to Brazilian forces on 1 January 1869 and was occupied until 1876.

A horse-drawn tramway opened in 1871, electric trams followed in 1913, and the city grew through the twentieth century as people moved in from the countryside. The Stroessner dictatorship ended with a coup in 1989, and in 1991 the Treaty of Asunción was signed here by the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. In August 2004 a fire at the Ycuá Bolaños supermarket killed more than 400 people. The city hosted the 2025 Junior Pan American Games and is due to host the 2031 Pan American Games.

Asunción is where Paraguay's two languages meet. By one count most residents speak Spanish as their main language, a smaller share Guaraní, and over a quarter jopara, the everyday mixture of the two, which fills streets and radio. Around nine in ten people are Catholic, and the cathedral and the Pantheon of the Heroes — in the full name an oratory of the Virgin of the Assumption, the city's patroness — sit at the heart of civic life.

Music is a point of pride. Guaranias and polcas, carried by the Paraguayan harp and the guitar, are the country's own music, and Maneco Galeano's guarania "Soy de la Chacarita" made a poor riverside neighbourhood of the capital famous. The Cabildo's Hall of Music keeps the guitar of Agustín Pío Barrios, known as Mangoré, the virtuoso guitarist and composer. Crafts from across the country — ñandutí lace, tooled leather, carved wood and pottery — are sold in the centre.

Football divides families: Olimpia and Cerro Porteño are the giants, with Libertad, Nacional, Guaraní and Sol de América among the other city clubs, and Cerro Porteño's stadium has been enlarged to hold 45,000 people. CONMEBOL, South American football's governing body, has its headquarters in neighbouring Luque. Terere, cold yerba mate shared from a guampa through a bombilla straw, is drunk all day, at work and in the street.

The 2022 census counted about 462,000 people in the city itself, while Greater Asunción, spreading into San Lorenzo, Luque, Lambaré, Fernando de la Mora, Capiatá and other towns of the Central Department, has more than 2.3 million. The city's own population has hardly grown since the late 1990s, as cheaper land and lower taxes have drawn new residents to the suburbs.

The capital is the seat of government, banking, the unions and the main cultural institutions, and about eight in ten working people are in commerce and services. The Universidad Nacional de Asunción, founded in 1889, and the Catholic University are the largest universities. Wealth is concentrated in Villa Morra, Carmelitas and the business district, with their towers and shopping centres, while La Chacarita, a shanty town of about 20,000 people beside the government palace, is one of the poorest places in the country. Low-lying districts by the river are exposed when the Paraguay floods.

The centre is busy on weekdays and empties from Saturday afternoon, when life moves to the shopping centres of the newer districts and to the Costanera. The city relies on buses, and residents widely report that crime has risen, with theft the everyday concern.

Asunción eats like the rest of Paraguay, on maize, cassava, cheese and beef. Chipa, a baked bun of cassava starch, cheese and milk, is sold everywhere, from street corners to the vendors who board long-distance buses. Sopa paraguaya, despite the name, is a cornbread made with corn flour, cheese and milk, and chipa guasu is a cake of corn grains often served at an asado, the grilled-meat gathering. Mandioca, boiled cassava, accompanies almost every meal in place of bread, and vori vori is a thick soup with dumplings of corn flour and cheese.

Street food is part of daily life. Lomito stands sell sandwiches of sliced beef, and many also sell lomito árabe, the local version of shawarma. The Paraguayan empanada is a staple snack, and old-fashioned cafe-bars in the centre, such as the Lido opposite the Pantheon, serve home cooking and a well-known fish soup.

Mercado 4 is the place to see what the city buys, with fruit, vegetables and groceries and cookshops serving Paraguayan dishes among the stalls. Terere is the constant drink, with mosto, a non-alcoholic sugarcane drink, and hot mate. The newer restaurants and bars of Villa Morra and Carmelitas cover everything from grills to international food.