Tourism in Paraguay between the Wars (1870-1932)

Landscape Architecture as a Resource that Generated Conditions in Urban and Suburban Environments of Asuncion

Abstract

Tourism, as an activity, had its beginnings in Paraguay in the mid-1870s. Its development in those early moments –as happened in other countries– was conditioned both by components of a constant nature, typical of the context, as well as by situations high-impact situational events.

The needs for urban and building infrastructure to support the incipient activity were resolved quite efficiently in the midst of very restrictive situations in terms of material, technical and human resources, with little contribution from the public sector. This involved landscape and architectural interventions on private property that in several cases became integrated into the collective imaginary as points of reference. There were even interventions in public spaces –although also carried out by the private sector– where the modification of the natural landscape and the urban fabric not only generated necessary conditions to promote the arrival of visitors, they also involved shaping scenarios so that they became identity components of those places.

Even though few vestiges of those landscape experiences remain today, they have important historical value due to their impact on the installation and social legitimation of the notion of aestheticization of the urban landscape in Paraguay.