Encarnación

The city began as a Jesuit mission. Roque González de Santa Cruz, a Paraguayan-born Jesuit, founded the reduction of Anunciación de Itapúa on 25 March 1615 on the southern bank of the Paraná, and in 1703 it was moved to the northern bank, where the city now stands, as Encarnación de Itapúa. The nearby missions of Trinidad, begun in 1706, and Jesús grew in the same century, until the Jesuits were expelled in 1767.

Encarnación gained importance when the railway arrived in 1894. In 1926 an F5 tornado devastated it, killing at least 300 people — the deadliest tornado in South American history. On 20 February 1931 a student and worker group led by Obdulio Barthe seized the city and declared a "revolutionary commune" run by popular assemblies. In 1957 the city became the seat of a Catholic diocese. Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled Paraguay from 1954 to 1989, was born here.

The biggest change came with the Yacyretá dam downstream. The plan to complete its reservoir flooded the Zona Baja, the old lower town by the river, and a new city of wide avenues and bridges took its place. The San Roque González de Santa Cruz Bridge to Posadas, proposed as compensation for the flooding, opened in 1990. In December 2011 the Costanera opened with three public beaches, and since then the city has become the centre of summer tourism for Paraguayans and visitors from the region.

Encarnación is often called "The Pearl of the South", and summer is its season. The Carnival, held each January and February, is the city's great event: clubs compete in a parade judged on originality, design, charisma, dance, rhythm and beauty, and it draws more than 100,000 visitors. On summer evenings the Costanera and the beaches fill with visitors.

The city is unusually mixed for Paraguay. Most people are of Spanish and Guaraní descent, but German, Ukrainian and Polish minorities live here, and Encarnación has the country's largest Ukrainian settlement, with Orthodox as well as Catholic churches. The surrounding department of Itapúa was settled by German, Ukrainian, Japanese and other immigrants, and the Plaza de Armas has a Japanese garden. Guaraní and Spanish mix in everyday speech, and terere is shared through the day, as across the country.

Life is closely tied to Argentina. Posadas lies directly across the river, many Argentines come to shop and holiday, and the bridge and the cross-border train make the two cities feel like neighbours. The city was a host city of the 2003 Futsal World Cup.

About 107,000 people lived in the city at the 2022 census, and Greater Encarnación has around 200,000, making it the third-largest city in Paraguay. It is the capital of Itapúa department and an important financial centre, with a close commercial relationship with Posadas, and trade with Argentine visitors and summer tourism bring much of its income.

Since the rebuilding that followed the Yacyretá works, the city has a modern look: wide avenues, the riverside Costanera and new districts in place of the old lower town. Tourism has grown steadily, and in peak summers rooms have run out across the city, with visitors lodged in towns up to 50 kilometres away. Bars, restaurants, discos and casinos are a notable source of work in the city.

The year has two speeds: crowded beaches, Carnival and full hotels in summer, and a quieter city in the cooler months, when Encarnación is the coldest city in Paraguay.

Encarnación 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, including from vendors who board the long-distance buses; sopa paraguaya is a cornbread made with corn flour, cheese and milk; and mandioca, boiled cassava, comes with most meals in place of bread. Beef is grilled asado-style, and vori vori, a thick soup with dumplings of corn flour and cheese, is home cooking.

The immigrant communities of Itapúa add their own tables. The city has Japanese restaurants, a reminder of the Japanese settlers in the surrounding department.

Most eating out happens around the Plaza de Armas and along the Costanera, where restaurants and snack bars sit by San José Beach, and set-menu lunches in local restaurants are the cheapest good meals. Terere is the constant drink, cold and shared, with fruit juices and hot mate.