The name behind this project
Why "Mother of Cities"?
Asunción started out small. On 15 August 1537 it was little more than a wooden stockade on a bay of the Paraguay River, built in alliance with the Cario Guaraní people. Four years later it was a full-fledged city and the last Spanish stronghold left in the Río de la Plata region, its "shelter and refuge." From its port, expeditions set off downriver and deep into the forest to found Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, Corrientes and the towns of the Guairá. They were made up of a handful of Spaniards and many "mancebos de la tierra" (literally "youths of the land"): mestizos born in Asunción to Guaraní mothers, who spoke Guaraní and knew the rivers. That is why Asunción is called the Mother of Cities. Coming here means standing on the spot from which much of the map of the Río de la Plata was drawn, and discovering that this heritage is still alive in the language, at the table and in the way people welcome you.
Mother of Cities
The city carries two titles with different origins. "Shelter and refuge of the conquest" dates back to the 16th century itself: in his report to the king, Juan de Salazar de Espinosa wrote that the Asunción stockade had been the "amparo y reparo de toda esta conquista", the shelter and remedy of the Spaniards in the Plata region. "Mother of Cities", on the other hand, is a much later name, as historian Guillaume Candela points out, and has no documented author. It sums up a proven fact: the expeditions that founded the cities of the Plata basin set out from Asunción. In the 20th century, the writer and former president Juan Natalicio González reinforced the idea when he wrote that, over three and a half centuries, "the efforts of Asunción gave rise to more than 70 cities." Santiago del Estero, in Argentina, also lays claim to the title of Mother of Cities.
1537 · Nuestra Señora Santa María de la Asunción
In 1537, Juan de Salazar de Espinosa and Gonzalo de Mendoza sailed up the Paraguay River in search of Juan de Ayolas, a lieutenant of Pedro de Mendoza who had set out for the legendary Sierra de la Plata, the fabled "Silver Mountains." In the land of the Carios, Guaraní farmers who agreed to an alliance, they built a wooden stockade on 15 August, the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, and named it after the feast day. Mendoza stayed in command with some thirty men. In 1541, Domingo Martínez de Irala ordered Buenos Aires abandoned, gathered all the Spaniards of the Plata region in Asunción and established the cabildo (town council) on 16 September: the fort had become a city.
Juan de Salazar de Espinosa, together with Gonzalo de Mendoza. Domingo Martínez de Irala raised it to the status of a city when he established its cabildo (town council) on 16 September 1541.
1539 · Paraguay · indirect link
Itá
According to local tradition, Irala founded it in 1539, perhaps on 3 February, the feast of Saint Blaise, during Asunción's first expansion toward the surrounding Guaraní villages. Neither the date nor the founder is fully documented.
Founder: Domingo Martínez de Irala, según la tradición
Today: A city in the Central department, part of Greater Asunción, known as the capital of ceramics for its handmade pottery.
It is nicknamed the "city of the clay pitcher and honey": tradition credits a Franciscan friar with teaching pottery to the women of the town, while the honey comes from its old sugarcane fields.
1554 · Brasil · indirect link
Villa de Ontiveros
It set out from Asunción in 1554 with some 60 soldiers, on Irala's orders, to settle the Guairá region and guard the road to Brazil. It was established beside the Paraná River, one league (about 5 km) above the Guairá Falls.
Founder: García Rodríguez de Vergara, por orden de Domingo Martínez de Irala
Today: Lost: its remains have never been found. The Guairá Falls that marked its location were submerged by the Itaipú reservoir in 1982. Coordinates are approximate (Guaíra, Paraná).
It lasted barely three years: in 1557 its settlers moved to Ciudad Real. It was built in the village of chief Canindeyú, "a great friend of the Spaniards," whose name is now borne by a Paraguayan department.
1557 · Brasil
Ciudad Real del Guairá
Irala dispatched Captain Ruy Díaz de Melgarejo from Asunción with about a hundred soldiers. He gathered the settlers of Ontiveros and founded the city three leagues to the north, where the Piquirí River flows into the Paraná.
Founder: Ruy Díaz de Melgarejo, por orden de Domingo Martínez de Irala
Today: An archaeological site in Terra Roxa (Paraná, Brazil), protected as state heritage since 1948. Bandeirantes, slave-raiding expeditions from São Paulo, attacked it from 1631 onward and razed it in 1638. Some sources give 1556 as its founding year.
In 1570 the column that founded Villa Rica del Espíritu Santo, today's Villarrica, set out from Ciudad Real, which makes Villarrica, strictly speaking, a "granddaughter" of Asunción.
1561 · Bolivia
Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Chaves left Asunción with some 158 soldiers, crossed the northern Chaco (Chaco Boreal) seeking to link Paraguay with Peru, and founded the city on the banks of the Sutó stream, in the Chiquitos hills, far from where it stands today.
Founder: Ñuflo de Chaves
Today: Bolivia's most populous city and the economic engine of the country's east. Between the late 16th century and 1621, its population moved to the Grigotá plains, where the city stands today.
It is named after Chaves's hometown in Extremadura, Spain. The original site, Santa Cruz la Vieja, is now the Santa Cruz la Vieja National Historic Park, about 3 km south of San José de Chiquitos. Jerónima, daughter of Juan de Garay and future wife of Hernandarias, was born there around 1563.
1570 · Paraguay
Villa Rica del Espíritu Santo (Villarrica)
Melgarejo, who had come to the Guairá from Asunción, set out from Ciudad Real with 40 men and 53 horses in search of rumored gold mines, which turned out to be iron, and founded the town in what is now the Brazilian state of Paraná.
Founder: Ruy Díaz de Melgarejo
Today: Capital of the Guairá department, at the foot of the Ybytyruzú hills. After seven moves, forced mainly by the bandeirantes (slave raiders from São Paulo), it settled here in 1683.
Its seven relocations between 1592 and 1683 earned it the nickname "Wandering City" (Ciudad Andariega). It is the only Spanish settlement of the old Guairá that survives, and King Philip V approved its final location in 1701.
1573 · Argentina
Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz
Garay sailed from Asunción on 14 April 1573 with about 80 men, most of them "mancebos de la tierra" (mestizos born in Asunción) and only nine Spaniards, to "open doors to the land": an intermediate port between Asunción and the sea.
Founder: Juan de Garay
Today: Capital of the Argentine province of Santa Fe. The city moved between 1650 and 1660; the original site, at Cayastá, is now the Santa Fe La Vieja Archaeological Park.
Among the ruins of Cayastá, archaeologists identified the graves of Hernandarias, the first American-born (criollo) governor of the Río de la Plata, and of his wife Jerónima de Contreras, Garay's daughter.
1574 · Uruguay · indirect link
Ciudad Zaratina de San Salvador
The adelantado (royal governor) Ortiz de Zárate, newly arrived from Spain, was cut off by Charrúa resistance. Garay came to his aid from Santa Fe with his men; together they defeated the Charrúa at the Battle of San Salvador (May 1574), and on 30 May the adelantado founded the city.
Founder: Juan Ortiz de Zárate, adelantado del Río de la Plata, con el auxilio de Juan de Garay
Today: Lost: it was dismantled in 1577. It stood where the San Salvador River meets the Uruguay River, in what is now the jurisdiction of Dolores (Soriano), and counts among the first Spanish settlements in present-day Uruguay. Coordinates are approximate (river mouth).
This is an indirect link: it was not founded by an expedition from Asunción, but the victory that made it possible was won alongside Garay and the settlers of Santa Fe, a daughter city of Asunción.
1580 · Argentina
Buenos Aires (Ciudad de la Trinidad y Puerto de Santa María de los Buenos Aires)
Organized in Asunción: Garay set out in March 1580 with some sixty settlers, almost all "mancebos de la tierra" born in Asunción (barely ten had come from Spain), and about 200 Guaraní families. They sailed downriver in a caravel and two brigantines, while horses and cattle were driven overland.
Founder: Juan de Garay
Today: Capital of Argentina and one of South America's great metropolises. Its founding square is today's Plaza de Mayo.
Among the founders granted full citizen rights there was just one woman, Ana Díaz, born in Asunción to a Galician conquistador and an Indigenous mother. And there is an irony: in 1541 it was Asunción that ordered Pedro de Mendoza's first Buenos Aires abandoned; 39 years later it refounded the city with its own people.
1580 · Brasil · indirect link
Santiago de Jerez (Xerez)
On Garay's orders, Melgarejo left Asunción in 1580 with 60 soldiers for the "fields of Xerez," near today's Pantanal, and founded the city beside the Mbotetey River (now the Miranda). Soon abandoned, it was refounded by Ruy Díaz de Guzmán on 24 March 1593 beside the Ivinhema River; it then moved several times until it was deserted around 1640.
Founder: Ruy Díaz de Melgarejo (1580); refundada por Ruy Díaz de Guzmán (1593)
Today: Lost. The ruins of one of its sites, excavated since 2008, lie on the Fazenda Volta Grande, about 15 km northwest of Aquidauana (Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil).
Its refounder, Ruy Díaz de Guzmán, was born in Asunción around 1559 and was the first Spanish-Guaraní mestizo to write the history of the Plata region: his 1612 Annals are known as "La Argentina."
1585 · Argentina
Concepción de Buena Esperanza (Concepción del Bermejo)
It left Asunción in March 1585 with 135 harquebusiers, some 1,000 horses and more than 300 cattle, one of the largest founding expeditions ever to set out from the city. Its aim was to link Paraguay with Tucumán across the Chaco.
Founder: Alonso de Vera y Aragón, apodado «Cara de Perro»
Today: The "Kilómetro 75" ruins, a National Historic Site about 25 km north of Tres Isletas (Chaco, Argentina). The city was abandoned in 1631–1632 after Indigenous attacks.
For centuries people searched for it along the banks of the Bermejo River, but it actually lay some 60 km west of it. Its ruins were identified by Alfredo Martinet on 17 September 1943.
1588 · Argentina
San Juan de Vera de las Siete Corrientes (Corrientes)
As the first act of his government, the adelantado (royal governor) founded the "City of Vera" to complete the chain of ports between Asunción and the sea. Most of its settlers were Guaraní-speaking mestizos who had come from Asunción.
Founder: Juan Torres de Vera y Aragón, último adelantado del Río de la Plata
Today: Capital of Corrientes province, facing Resistencia across the Paraná River, and the oldest city in northeastern Argentina.
Its name refers to seven rocky points that churn the Paraná's current (corrientes). According to the tradition of the Cross of Miracles, the founding cross withstood fire in 1588; it is venerated in the Church of La Cruz.
1607 · Paraguay
Caazapá
Bolaños arrived in Asunción in 1575 with the expedition of the adelantado Ortiz de Zárate, and from there he traveled the province founding reducciones, mission towns for the Guaraní. Caazapá was born this way, under the governorship of Hernandarias, as an Indigenous town protected by the Franciscan order.
Founder: Fray Luis de Bolaños (franciscano)
Today: Capital of the Caazapá department, with colonial houses with shaded verandas in the center, the Church of San Pablo and the Ykua Bolaños spring.
Legend has it that, in the middle of a drought, Bolaños made water gush forth at Ykua Bolaños (ykua means "spring" in Guaraní); it is said never to have run dry and to grant favors to lovers.
1611 · Paraguay
San Francisco de Yuty (Yuty)
Another of Bolaños's reducciones (mission towns). The Franciscan, who had arrived in Asunción in 1575, traveled the province gathering Guaraní communities. Yuty arose in the south of today's Caazapá department, at the height of the Franciscan missionary era.
Founder: Fray Luis de Bolaños (franciscano)
Today: A small town in the Caazapá department with Franciscan roots, living from farming (soybeans, yerba mate, rice) and cattle ranching. It still has its square with a church and a 1902 railway station beside the Pirapó River.
Its name made it to Mars: a crater on the Martian plain of Chryse Planitia is called Yuty in honor of this Paraguayan town.
1615 · Argentina · indirect link
Itatí
It was the last of the reducciones (mission towns) founded by Bolaños, the Franciscan who worked among the Guaraní from his base in Asunción. It brought together Indigenous people held in encomienda, the colonial forced-labor system, who, under the friars' protection, were kept away from the abuses of the encomenderos.
Founder: Fray Luis de Bolaños (franciscano)
Today: A town in Corrientes province on the banks of the Paraná, facing the Paraguayan shore, known for the Basilica of Our Lady of Itatí, a major pilgrimage center in northeastern Argentina.
According to tradition, the image of the Virgin of Itatí was carved in wood by Indigenous hands; her basilica rises to about 88 meters.
1773 · Paraguay
Villa Real de la Concepción (Concepción)
Organized from Asunción by Governor Pinedo, who in May 1773 built a military town on the Paraguay River to defend the north of the province against Portuguese advances.
Founder: Agustín Fernando de Pinedo, gobernador del Paraguay
Today: Capital of the Concepción department: a historic center with mansions from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a port on the Paraguay River and the departure point for river cruises heading north.
Today it is called the "Pearl of the North," but it began life as a fort whose mission was to keep watch over the river against Portuguese advances.
1779 · Paraguay · indirect link
Villa del Pilar de Ñeembucú (Pilar)
In early October 1779, the residents who would settle the new town set out from Asunción. Governor Melo de Portugal had ordered it built as a troop outpost to watch over the Paraguay River, beside the Ñeembucú stream.
Founder: Por orden del gobernador intendente Pedro Melo de Portugal
Today: Capital of Ñeembucú, about 230 km south of Asunción, facing Formosa (Argentina); a gateway to wetlands and to sites of the War of the Triple Alliance.
It was born as Villa del Ñeembucú; four years later it took the name Pilar at the initiative of a priest from Zaragoza devoted to Our Lady of the Pillar (Virgen del Pilar), whose feast is celebrated every 12 October.
1786 · Paraguay
Villa San Pedro Apóstol del Ycuamandiyú (San Pedro)
Ordered from Asunción by Governor Pedro Melo de Portugal, it was founded by Commander José Ferreira and Captain Pedro García Lacoizqueta to hold back the Portuguese advances that threatened the province.
Founder: José Ferreira y Pedro García Lacoizqueta, por orden del gobernador Pedro Melo de Portugal
Today: Capital of the San Pedro department, a few kilometers from the Jejuí and Paraguay rivers, with river beaches and fishing.
Its name joins Saint Peter the Apostle with two Guaraní words: ykua ("spring") and mandyju ("cotton").
History
On 15 August, Juan de Salazar de Espinosa and Gonzalo de Mendoza build the stockade of Nuestra Señora Santa María de la Asunción in the land of the Cario Guaraní.
Irala orders Buenos Aires abandoned and gathers all the Spaniards of the Plata region in Asunción. On 16 September he establishes the cabildo (town council): the fort becomes a city and the seat of the governorate.
Pope Paul III creates the Diocese of the Río de la Plata, seated in Asunción, the first episcopal see in the region.
The founding century: from Asunción's port set out the expeditions that found Ontiveros, Ciudad Real del Guairá, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Santa Fe, Santiago de Jerez, Buenos Aires, Concepción del Bermejo and Corrientes.
The Spanish Crown splits the governorate: Buenos Aires heads that of the Río de la Plata, while Asunción remains capital of the Guairá governorate, later called Paraguay, which loses its access to the sea.
The Comunero Revolution: the común, the citizenry of Asunción, stands up to the viceregal authorities, with José de Antequera y Castro and later Fernando de Mompox as central figures.
On the night of 14–15 May, the leaders of independence peacefully secure the surrender of Governor Bernardo de Velasco in Asunción: independent Paraguay is born.
During the War of the Triple Alliance, Allied troops occupy Asunción; the occupation lasts until 1876. Afterward, immigration and new buildings drive the city's reconstruction.
In March, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay sign the Treaty of Asunción in the city, giving birth to Mercosur.
Asunción will celebrate 500 years since its founding; the city government is already sharing its history through the series "Asunción 500 años."
Researched and reviewed in September 2026 with 21 sources. A second reviewer checked dates, coordinates and lodging. Hours and prices may change.