3 Best Sights in Southern Paraguay, Paraguay

The town's restored 18th-century Iglesia de San Buenaventura was the centerpiece of Paraguay's post-Jesuit Franciscan missions. Inside, you'll find brightly colored wooden statues carved by Guaraní artists.

The Jesuits began construction of the hilltop church of Jesús del Tavarangue a mere eight years before their expulsion from the New World. Though never finished, this is the most distinctive of the region's mission churches. Moorish-style arches make up the building's three entrances and lead to what were to be three naves and three altars. Vegetation and earth have covered much of the nearby reducción community. Painstaking excavations are under way.

Follow the signs along a dirt track to the red sandstone mission buildings, currently in use as a Jesuit school. They once held an astronomical observatory. Many original houses are still in use.