Encarnación

Capital of Itapúa department, Paraguay, 300 km/186 mi from Asunción on the Alto Paraná River, which here forms the border with Argentina; population (1996) 48,006. It is an important commercial centre at the southern terminus of the Paraguayan Central Railway. Among the products exported from here are tobacco, soya, cotton, rice, cattle, hides, yerba maté (‘Paraguay tea’), and timber. A bridge and train ferry across the Alto Paraná connect Encarnación with Posadas in northeast Argentina, from where a railway line runs to Buenos Aires. Encarnación is also the terminus of the main highway from Asunción.

Encarnació is now the centre for the construction of the Yaciterá-Apipé dam, which is shared by Paraguay and Argentina. The older, lower part of the colonial town will be flooded when the dam is completed. A modern town has been built higher up.

The city was extensively rebuilt after its partial destruction in 1926.