Laureles y su plaza yere colonial

Laureles is one of the oldest towns in Ñeembucú and keeps the look of a 19th-century provincial village. Its great draw is the yere-style square: colonial houses set around a large central plaza and the church, with their corridors joined side by side into long arcades. It is also the keeper of the department's cattle-country traditions. From the third Friday of January through Sunday the Fiesta de la Tradición y el Folklore takes place, with rodeo riding, music, spit-roast beef and creole games such as the carrerapé and ring and hide races on the central plaza. In October the Virgen del Rosario is honoured. The district is ringed by marshes (Ñeembucú, Cenizales, Pikyry, Pirá Guazú), the Tanimbú lagoon lies a few kilometres away, and on the Misiones border you will find the Yabebyry Wildlife Refuge, where walks and safaris are possible. It is a quiet base for seeing rural Ñeembucú.

The town was founded in 1790 by Colonel Joaquín de Alós y Brú, governor of Paraguay from 1787 to 1796. The village church was built in 1791 and is another local historical relic.