Famous Landmarks in Asunción
Asunción's landmarks are 19th-century neoclassical monuments built along the riverbank.
Asunción's landmark buildings sit within a few blocks of the historic downtown, close to the bay where the Paraguay River bends, rather than scattered across the wider city. Nearly all of them are neoclassical, raised in a single nineteenth-century push under the López governments that sought to give the young republic the trappings of a capital: a presidential palace, a cathedral, a chapel intended as a mausoleum. That push was interrupted by the War of the Triple Alliance, which damaged or halted construction across the city, and one landmark stood unfinished for decades afterward. What stands today is a mix of completed 1840s-1860s construction and later twentieth-century finishing work, all still reading as a single neoclassical old town.
Palacio de los López
1857–1867 · Alonso Taylor
A low, symmetrical neoclassical palace built in restrained Palladian proportions, its main facade turned toward the water of a broad river bay rather than the streets behind it.
Commissioned by the country's first constitutional president under an 1844 constitution, construction began in 1857 under the English architect Alonso Taylor and was substantially finished by 1867. It was built to house the president's son and chosen successor, who in the end never moved in. During the War of the Triple Alliance, Brazilian and Argentine forces sacked the building in January 1869, looting its furniture and ornaments; occupying troops then used it as a barracks for seven years, leaving it derelict by 1876. It now serves as the seat of the national government.
- It was built to house a president's chosen successor, who never actually lived there.
- Brazilian and Argentine forces sacked and looted it in 1869, and occupying troops left it derelict within a decade.
Photo: W. Bulach (CC BY-SA 4.0)
National Pantheon of the Heroes
1863–1936 · Alejandro Ravizza
A neoclassical church that still carries the modest footprint of the chapel it began as, now serving as a state mausoleum for the country's historic dead behind its plain facade.
Construction began in October 1863 as a chapel dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, designed by the Italian architect Alejandro Ravizza with the builder Giacomo Colombino. The War of the Triple Alliance halted the work, and the unfinished chapel stood scaffolded for more than seventy years. It was finally completed after the Chaco War and inaugurated on 12 October 1936 as the National Pantheon of Heroes. The building now functions as a state mausoleum, holding the remains of two former presidents, a Chaco War general and his wife, child soldiers killed at the Battle of Acosta Ñu, and unknown soldiers.
- The chapel stood unfinished and scaffolded for more than seventy years before it was completed.
- It holds the remains of child soldiers killed in a nineteenth-century battle, buried alongside two former presidents.
Photo: Felipe Antonio (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Asunción Cathedral
1845
A neoclassical cathedral with a plain exterior that gives no hint of the high altar faced entirely in silver inside, standing at the heart of the old colonial center.
The present building, the cathedral's latest version, was constructed under the government of Carlos Antonio López and inaugurated in 1845. It is dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption, patroness of the capital, and its diocese was the first to be established in the wider Río de la Plata region. Located in the historic center, it has a high altar coated in silver and remains the seat of the metropolitan archdiocese, the principal Catholic church of the country.
- Its high altar is coated entirely in silver.
- It was the first diocese established anywhere in the Río de la Plata region.
Photo: FF MM (CC BY-SA 4.0)
History
Asunción's built landmarks trace back to the government of Carlos Antonio López, who in the 1840s and 1850s pursued a program of neoclassical construction meant to project the authority of Paraguay's new republic: a cathedral finished in 1845, and a palace begun in 1857 for the president's son and chosen successor. His government also ordered a chapel in 1863, the year before war engulfed the country. The War of the Triple Alliance devastated Asunción: occupying forces sacked the palace and looted its furnishings, while the unfinished chapel stood scaffolded for more than seventy years. Completion work continued long after the war and closed only in the twentieth century - the chapel was finally finished in 1936, after a second war, the Chaco War, had ended.