How we'd lucked out when choosing to stay at the Asuncion Palace for the three nights before beginning our tour of the southern part of Paraguay with our driver. The hotel had been the former residence of a president's brother and had been restored but still showed its original brick walls and balustrades.
Photos that caught my attention in downtown Asuncion as we walked to the Casa de la Independencia:
The House of Independence where Paraguayan independence from Spain was secretly plotted had been turned into a museum furnished in period fashion. The adobe home was built in 1722 in classic colonial style by a Spaniard, Antonio Martinez Saenz, married to a Paraguayan. After his death, it was only natural that the five so-called Proceres de la Independencia met there as they were friends of Saenz's children and heirs.
We were lucky to have an English-speaking guide, Juan, show only us around the museum at no charge. Juan talked about the horrific Triple Alliance War that occurred from 1865-1870 when Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina invaded Paraguay. A staggering 80 percent of the population were killed in the war, leaving only women and children to survive. After the war, Juan stressed that women rebuilt the country. He said the pope - but without clarifying which pope - had said Paraguayan women were the strongest in all of South America because they had lost all their family members.
After the war, the provisional government opened up Paraguay's doors to men from Italy, Germany, Austria, France and Russia who subsequently married the Paraguayan women. It was because of these intermarriages, that all these years later, many Paraguayans don't look like their Hispanic counterparts in the rest of South America but 'whiter.'
Before the war, Jose explained that Paraguay had far more land mass but Argentina took a lot of the land and Uruguay took land along the coast. Both countries later apologized for leaving Paraguay as a landlocked country but Brazil, who also absorbed much of the former Paraguay into their country, never apologized blaming Portugal. Juan told us that England paid Portugal to start the war against Paraguay because the latter was a major industrial power in South America that was able to compete against England. The upshot was England wanted a war against Paraguay.
Columbia University in New York had donated this copy of a letter by the government of Chile who had been the first nation in South America to recognize Paraguay's independence in 1843.
Jose told us how Brazilians still aren't welcomed in Paraguay because their country's teachers fail to talk about the Triple Alliance War to their students. Instead, they are told, according to Juan, Paraguay invaded Brazil and that the war only lasted one year, not five.
Juan mentioned that secret letters were stored in the compartments of this desk that had come from Spain like the other furniture in the museum.
In the sala de lujo or aptly translated 'luxury room,' was some beautiful French furniture and paintings from the 17th-19th centuries, including a pair of 18th century Murano chandeliers with original candles. The sala was the most important room in this home because it was here that decisions were made on the new laws, the congress and the colors of the flag for the newly independent country.
Juan wondered how many people had gazed into the mirror from Venice since it was made in 1780!
When the home was built, the norm was entire families lived in one bedroom.
We then entered the home's chapel that included a baptismal font that was 250 years old. All the family's members had been baptized there.
One room depicted the government when three councilors each had equal power.
IF you click on the map below to make it bigger, it will be easier to see the red line indicating how mammoth Paraguay was in 1640 and when Uruguay used to be a province of Paraguay! Despite all our travel throughout the continent two years previously, we had never known that Asuncion was the official first city in South America for Spain. It was there that settlers went to found so many other cities that Asuncion is known as the 'Mother of Cities.'
Juan showed us both sides of his country's flag with the two coats-of-arms. Paraguay's first president for 27 years was a lawyer who liked the symbol of ancient Rome with olive branches. The second president was a former ambassador who lived in France and considered the symbol of the lion as immortal.
Beside the museum was a restored alleyway that showed what the street looked like when the five Proceres seeking independence left the side door on the decisive night of May 14th, 1811. Before we left, Juan explained that his country's independence was gained with not one drop of blood being shed in the 'war' that lasted just twelve hours on that May day. The bells of the cathedral were then rung continually to call the citizens to celebrate Paraguay's birth as a free country.
We returned to the Panteon that we'd looked at briefly from the outside the night before. The small oratory with the large dome housed the remains of some of the country's most famous people. The building was begun in 1863 but not completed until 1936 because of the outbreak of the Triple Alliance War.
The statue of the Virgin in the oratory is honored at the public Mass outside the cathedral on the Feast of the Assumption each August 15th.
You can see how very bare bones Asuncion's main street was when viewed from inside the Panteon which itself was quite lovely.
This historic old building with its colonnade of yellow arches was the police headquarters. It was one of the city's more attractive and well maintained buildings and was located across from the poorly maintained Plaza Mayor also known as Independence Square.
The monument honored the city's founding in 1537.
Neither of us could ever remember walking through a capital city's central square and see it in such desperately poor shape as this sadly was. What a shame that we had to tread carefully on the uneven and broken bricks and walk around piles of trash on what could have been a lovely place to gather.
At one end of the square was the Metropolitan Cathedral, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1842 on the ruins of the fifth previous cathedral. It was designed by the same Italian architect who had designed the Panteon. As the cathedral was only open during Masses, we planned to return the following morning, a Sunday, to enter.
To the cathedral's right and therefore also on the plaza was the Cabildo, the former Palacio Legislativo where the Senate used to meet. The pink building was a distinctive building in the city and was where the election of Mariscal Lopez as president took place under extreme pressure in 1862, the declaration of war against Argentina in 1865 and the approval of the Constitution over many years. It became the country's Congress in 1904 but when a new Congress building was constructed a century later, the Cabildo was converted into a cultural center.
One temporary exhibit had contemporary examples of the intricate Paraguayan craft known as nanduti, which translates to a spiderweb and is normally made of lace. You will see many more examples of nanduti in upcoming posts - this is just a teaser!
Other exhibits were indigenous artifacts in fiber, wood and feathers.
There was only just room for the big wooden canoe standing up against a wall in one room.
The traditional nanduti craft began in the Paraguayan city of Itagua after being brought over from the Spanish Canary Islands in the 17th and 18th centuries. When planning our Paraguayan itinerary months ago, Itagua was one of the cities we'd notified our guide, Jose, we wanted to visit so we could see, and possibly buy, some pieces of nanduti.
A third room had some beautiful religious statues displayed against vibrant red walls. They were examples of Jesuit-Guarani art which we would again be seeing lots more of in the following almost week of traveling around the southern part of the country with Jose.
I really liked the museum's intricate wrought-iron stairway.
Upstairs were instruments that once belonged to the country's best musicians:
The former senate chamber and current City Hall:
Behind the Cabildo were extensive view of the slums of Banado, a poor residential area crammed into low-lying space between the plaza and the Rio Paraguay. It was the same area we'd seen when driving in from the airport the previous afternoon and that regularly suffered from horrific flooding.
While Steven waited outside for me, I enjoyed listening to this young group of musicians who played some rousing music.
As we continues walking to the right around the plaza, we came to the Congreso Nacional that was paid for by the government of Taiwan. An aside: That nation is one of the countries we will be visiting as part of our upcoming four-month long trip to Asia beginning on March 1st. We're also hoping to return to China but, with the current coronavirus outbreak, that may be but a pipe dream now.
In front of the congress was a 12 meter-high sculpture representing a tree trunk in memory of the city's founding and of its first fort. The sculpture was called Mother of Cities, cradle of American freedom.
Beyond the Congress was an impressive statue of Mariscal Lopez, the general who led Paraguay into the Triple Alliance War and is regarded as a national hero.
Next to the grand Congress building was another rundown building by what should have been the capital city's grand central square. This wasn't any old building but the old Congress and former Jesuit college opened by them ten years after they arrived in 1588.
We spent the next couple of hours trying to see the acclaimed Museo de la Silla de Asuncion or Museum of Chairs and then the world class Museo del Barro. That time will be the focus of the next post as the latter was so delightful and singlehandedly made us reappraise our generally negative view of Asuncion.
From the city's distant suburbs, we returned to the city center by local bus thanks to Steven's hard work in advance navigating the city's public transportation. Taking the $1 ride was far more interesting than taking a taxi! If the bus had been air conditioned, it would only have been $1.50, so still a steal for us.
If you think I was exaggerating about the hazardous state of Asuncion's sidewalks, this photo will prove I wasn't!
A stately, but closed, colonial building we walked past en route to the city's port area:
We walked along the revitalized Costanera or waterfront for a bit to get an up-close sense of what we'd just driven past the preceding day. We'd read that there was a fair called Puerto Abierto on the riverside on Saturday afternoons with creative events and craft stalls but unfortunately that wasn't the case when we were there. We could have taken a boat that regularly crossed over to the little village of Chaco'i' where there was a small beach and open-air restaurant.
Part of the Paraguayan navy patrolled the river as it was so close to Argentina.
The last time we'd seen a city sign had just been a few weeks earlier in Ushuaia at the southern tip of Argentina before boarding the ship for our cruise to Antarctica.
Behind the sign was the back of certainly the grandest building in the city, the Palacio de Gobierno aka Palacio de Lopez because it was begun in 1860 by Mariscal Lopez, the country's president at the time. The palacio was to be his private residence and was based on his fondness for the Versailles in Paris but the Triple Alliance War broke out and he never enjoyed his new home.
We walked past some more pretty ghastly buildings on the way to the front of the palacio via the small Plaza de los Desaparecidos or Plaza of the Disappeared. The latter was in memory of those citizens who 'disappeared' or killed and never seen from again during the regime of the dictator, Alfredo Stroessner. The size of the plaza seemed inappropriate given the horrors that occurred when he was president from 1954-1989, the longest in modern South American history.
We discovered the next day how fortunate we had been to walk around the front of the Palacio de Lopez as then no one could enter even the grounds. In 1890, the palacio was turned into government offices which is still its function.
Quite the Christmas tree, don't you think? We liked looking at it but had to endure listening to the history of the palacio over and over and over again on the loudspeakers!
Spending a big chunk of the day walking around Asuncion, we had grown accustomed to seeing not just police officers but military police all over the city. Neither growing up in, or now living in, a city where there is a strong police presence, we knew to be on the lookout for police and where we could walk or could NOT walk, lest we hear an officer's whistle!
Directly opposite the palacio was the Manzana de la Rivera, a block of mostly historic, interconnected homes that was supposed to be an art and study center but we couldn't find the entrance!
As you may have noticed in the preceding photos, there was remarkably little traffic in the downtown core on a Saturday even though the population is greater than half a million people. Another thing that struck me (us?) was the lack of more than two highrises. I wondered whether it was due to only a particular style being permitted or there was an issue with the earth or soils.
A food truck, Asuncion style!
I hope our brief exploration of Asuncion has given you a sense of Paraguay's capital city. It certainly can't be described as one of South America's loveliest or most charming capital cities but there were some elements, like the Casa de Independencia and the Panteon, that were very attractive.
Next post: A visit to Asuncion's Museo del Barro was the best reason to visit Paraguay's capital!
Posted on January 31st, 2020, from our home in suburban Denver, Colorado.