Paysandú

Department in northwest Uruguay, bordered to the west by Argentina along the River Uruguay, to the north by the River Daymán, to the south by the Río Negro, and to the east and south by the Cuchilla de Haedo mountain range; area 13,922 sq km/5,375 sq mi; population (1996) 103,763. The capital is Paysandú.

Paysandú

City and capital of Paysandú department in northwest Uruguay, located on the east bank of the River Uruguay; population (1996) 84,200. It is Uruguay's second-largest city and is the nation's only significant industrial centre outside Montevideo. Tinned meat is the main product. The city dates from 1772 and is linked by a bridge built in 1976 with Puerto Colón in Argentina.

The 19th-century cathedral has cannonballs embedded in its walls dating from the 1865 Brazilian siege, when the town was held by Paraguay.