Theme Week Paraguay – Asunción

Saturday, 28 July 2018 - 12:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General
Reading Time:  8 minutes

Calle Palma © Bruno Arriola/cc-by-sa-3.0

Calle Palma © Bruno Arriola/cc-by-sa-3.0

Asunción is the capital and largest city of Paraguay. The city is located on the left bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the River Pilcomayo, on the South American continent. The Paraguay River and the Bay of Asunción in the northwest separate the city from the Occidental Region of Paraguay and Argentina in the south part of the city. The rest of the city is surrounded by the Central Department. The city is an autonomous capital district, not a part of any department. The metropolitan area, called Gran Asunción, includes the cities of San Lorenzo, Fernando de la Mora, Lambaré, Luque, Mariano Roque Alonso, Ñemby, San Antonio, Limpio, Capiatá and Villa Elisa, which are part of the Central Department. The Asunción metropolitan area has over 2.2 million inhabitants.

With its location along the Paraguay River, the city offers many landscapes; it spreads out over gentle hills in a pattern of rectangular blocks. Places such as Cerro Lambaré, a hill located in Lambaré, offer a spectacular show in the springtime because of the blossoming lapacho trees in the area. Parks such as Parque Independencia and Parque Carlos Antonio López offer large areas of typical Paraguayan vegetation and are frequented by tourists. There are several small hills and slightly elevated areas throughout the city, including Cabará, Clavel, Tarumá, Cachinga, and Tacumbú, among others. Asunción is one of the oldest cities in South America and the longest continually inhabited area in the Río de la Plata Basin; for this reason it is known as “the Mother of Cities”. From Asunción the colonial expeditions departed to found other cities, including the second foundation of Buenos Aires and other important cities such as Villarrica, Corrientes, Santa Fe and Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

In terms of commerce, this sector has grown considerably in recent years stretching towards the suburbs where shopping malls and supermarkets have been built. Paraguay’s only stock exchange, the BVPASA, is located here. The city itself is listed on it. In Asuncion, the most important companies, businesses and investment groups are headquartered. The attractiveness of the city can be attributed to its easy going tax policies. Asunción has unrestrained taxes on the investments and movements of capital. In addition to this, the Asunción stock exchange traded up 485.7% in August 2012 relative to August 2011. There is also no income tax for investors in Bonds of Asunción Stock Exchange. Incentives like these attract significant foreign investment into the city. By many Latin American experts, Paraguay is tapped as one of the top three counties with the best investment climate in Latin America and the Caribbean as well it remains the most attractive nation of the hemisphere in doing business and is equipped with a series of legislations that protect strategic investments and guarantee a friendly environment for the development of large industrial plants and infrastructure projects.The city is the economic center of Paraguay, followed by Ciudad del Este and Encarnación.

Teatro Municipal Ignacio A. Pane © Patty P Palacio de los López © Arthuro SantaCruz/cc-by-sa-3.0 International Airport Silvio Pettirossi © Felipe Méndez/cc-by-sa-3.0 © flickr.com - Arcadiuš/cc-by-2.0 Catedral de la Santísima Trinidad © Felipe Méndez/cc-by-sa-3.0 Calle Palma © Bruno Arriola/cc-by-sa-3.0
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International Airport Silvio Pettirossi © Felipe Méndez/cc-by-sa-3.0
The city is home to the Godoy Museum, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (which contains paintings from the 19th century), the Church of La Encarnación, the Metropolitan Cathedral and the National Pantheon of the Heroes, a smaller version of Les Invalides in Paris, where many of the nation’s heroes are entombed. Other landmarks include the Palacio de los López, the old Senate building (a modern building opened to house Congress in 2003) and the Casa de la Independencia (one of the few examples of colonial architecture remaining in the city).

Calle Palma is the main street downtown where several historical buildings, plazas, shops, restaurants and cafés are located. The “Manzana de la Rivera”, located in front of the Presidential Palace, is a series of old traditional homes that have been restored and serve as a museum showcasing the architectural evolution of the city. The old railway station maintains the old trains that now are used in tourist trips to the cities of Luque and Areguá.

Asunción also has luxurious malls that contain shops selling well-known brands. The biggest shopping malls are Shopping del Sol; Mariscal López Shopping, Shopping Villa Morra in the central part of the city, Shopping Multiplaza on the outskirts of the city and the Mall Excelsior located downtown. Pinedo Shopping and San Lorenzo Shopping are the newest and also sizeable shopping malls located just 5.6 and 9.3 kilometres (3.5 and 5.8 mi) from Asunción’s boundaries respectively, in the city of San Lorenzo, part of Greater Asunción. In 2016 a new shopping mall, La Galeria, was inaugurated. It is in between the blue towers, and is now the largest shopping mall in the country. The nightlife revolves around two areas: one in the downtown part of the city and the other in the neighbourhoods of Manora and Las Carmelitas, a night full of nightclubs and bars.

Asunción also hosts several symphony orchestras, and ballet, opera and theater companies. The most well known orchestras are the City of Asunción’s Symphony Orchestra (OSCA), the National Symphony Orchestra and the Northern University Symphony Orchestra. Among professional ballet companies, most renowned are the Asunción Classic and Modern Municipal Ballet, the National Ballet and the Northern University Ballet. The main opera company is the Northern University Opera Company. A long-standing theater company is Arlequín Theater Foundation’s. Traditional venues include the Municipal Theater, the Paraguayan-Japanese Center, the Central Bank’s Great Lyric Theater, the Juan de Salazar Cultural Center, the Americas Theater, the Tom Jobim Theater, the Arlequín Theater and the Manzana de la Rivera. Asunción is also the center of Architecture in Paraguay.

Here you can find the complete Overview of all Theme Weeks.

Read more on City of Asunción, LonelyPlanet.com – Asunción, Wikitravel Asunción, Wikivoyage Asunción and Wikipedia Asunción. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.








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