NOV20

Classroom lesson · Jesuit Missions Ruins · 🇵🇾 Paraguay

Jesuit Missions Ruins

Ancient stone buildings hidden in the jungle

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

Hundreds of years ago, large communities of Guaraní people and Jesuit missionaries built beautiful towns in what is now Paraguay, each centred on a grand stone church. Many of those towns fell into ruin over the centuries, but their stone walls, carved archways, and statues still stand today, quietly waiting to be explored.

Tell me more

The missions were like mini-cities. People lived, farmed, and made music there. The builders combined European styles with patterns and carvings inspired by Guaraní art, so the buildings look like nothing else on Earth — a mix of two worlds that grew up together over many decades.

Today the most famous ruins in Paraguay are Trinidad and Jesús, both listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. UNESCO is an organisation that protects special places around the world so that future generations can visit them. The carved stone figures of angels and animals at Trinidad are so detailed you can still make out the feathers on their wings.

Inside the ruins, archaeologists — people who study the past by digging and exploring — have found bells, musical instruments, and beautiful decorated tiles. The Guaraní who lived in the missions were brilliant musicians and craftspeople, and their skills shaped Paraguay's culture long after the missions were abandoned.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01If you found an old building covered by jungle, how would you feel walking into it for the first time?
  2. 02Why do organisations like UNESCO work to protect old places? What might be lost if old buildings were left to crumble?
  3. 03The Guaraní people mixed their own art with European styles. Can you think of anything in your own life that mixes two different cultures?
Try this

Classroom activity

Using air-dry clay or paper, design your own stone carving that combines two different styles — for example, an animal from your country drawn in a style inspired by somewhere else. Share your design and explain the choices you made.

More about Paraguay

Other things that make Paraguay special

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