San Bernardino

San Bernardino was founded on 24 August 1881, after the War of the Triple Alliance, as an agricultural colony for German-speaking immigrants. The idea came from Santiago Otto Schaerer, a German-Swiss who wrote to the Paraguayan government about the advantages the country offered to settlers; the government promised each family land, a team of oxen, seeds, passage from Buenos Aires and six months' keep. Five families arrived, and after land near Luque proved too expensive, they were settled on the shore of Lake Ypacaraí. Schaerer became the colony's first administrator, and the town was named in honour of Bernardino Caballero, president at the time.

German institutions soon followed. The German Club was founded in 1889, and in the same years the Hotel del Lago was built on the shore. There Bernhard Förster, the antisemitic activist whose model German settlement of Nueva Germania had failed, spent the last six weeks of his life before taking his own life in June 1889; he is buried in the town's cemetery. During the Second World War the German Club was expropriated, and from 1945 it became the Club Náutico de San Bernardino.

Through the 20th century the colony turned into a resort. German and Swiss immigration continued for decades before slowing from the 1970s, and the town became the main summer retreat of traditional families from Greater Asunción.

San Bernardino's identity is that of Paraguay's summer town, known locally as San Ber and called the "Summer City". From December to mid-February young people from Asunción and the surrounding towns gather at its clubs, pubs and public spaces, the lake fills with boats and jet skis, and the town is the place to see and be seen. Summer sport is part of the season: football and basketball tournaments have been held at its stadiums since the early 1980s, and the streets have hosted a motor-racing Grand Prix.

The colony's origins still show. A few houses of the early German settlers survive, the breweries and German food recall the founders. At the same time it is fully part of the Cordillera, a region of Guaraní speech, Catholic devotion and folk music. Lake Ypacaraí itself is internationally known through the song "Recuerdos de Ypacaraí" by Demetrio Ortiz, and the neighbouring towns hold the country's most famous folk festival, at Ypacaraí, and its largest sanctuary, at Caacupé.

Relations between the summer visitors and the year-round population shape the town's rhythm. Locals greet each other on the street, tereré is shared through the day, while the crowds of high summer bring a looser, louder atmosphere.

About 12,000 people lived in San Bernardino at the 2022 census. It is one of the wealthiest towns in Paraguay per head, and it is the summer home of traditional families from Greater Asunción, so the population and the local economy rise and fall with the seasons.

The economy depends on tourism and on the summer residents: hotels, restaurants, clubs, shops, building work and the upkeep of holiday houses employ many people, alongside small businesses serving the year-round town. In high season the town is busy late into the night, with discos and pubs full of young visitors; for the rest of the year it is a quiet town.

The main local issue is the health of Lake Ypacaraí. Toxic algae, farm run-off, deforestation and the growth of the towns around its shore have made it the most polluted lake in Paraguay, turning its water green, and swimming is no longer advised. The lake was once known as the "blue lake".

San Bernardino eats like the rest of eastern Paraguay, with a German accent. Chipa, a baked bun of cassava starch, cheese and milk, is sold everywhere; sopa paraguaya, despite its 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. Asado, grilled beef, is both a way of cooking and a social gathering, and mandioca (boiled cassava) takes the place of bread on the table.

The town's settlers left breweries and German food and drinks, and the region's kitchen adds mbejú, a starch cake, eaten with cocido, a hot yerba mate drink, and vori vori, a thick soup with corn-flour-and-cheese dumplings.

Tereré, cold yerba mate infused with water and herbs and shared from one cup through a bombilla straw, is drunk through the hot days. Across the lake, Areguá is known for its strawberries and strawberry products, and caña is the spirit made from sugarcane juice.