Trips to Paraguay

Location: 22°21' of South Latitude and 60 ' 01 of West longitude.
One is to 20 km the north of the Trans-Chaco route.

Distance of Asuncio'n: 450 km

Population: 8,048 mennonitas colonists
Philadelphia is a city of the department of Big hole, in the Great Paraguayan Chaco, to borders of the Parana river. It is the center of the Colony Mennonita Fernheim. Around Philadelphia other indigenous villages of the Colony as well as several reserves are located: the Chulupí, Language, Tufa, Sanapaná and Ayoreo.

The city, calm, well taken care of ordinate and, lodge a museum, a library, a radio station and a modern hospital. To visit it is since to make a trip in the time.

The Museum Jacob Unger shows to interesting indigenous crafts as well as archaeological relics and of the war of the Chaco.
To about 3 km to the east of the city, the Park Clover serves like encamped place of the visitors.

Brief history: The seated mennonitas colonists in Russia from century XVIII were with serious problems because of the revolution 1917 Bolshevik. They managed to flee from the Soviet Union in 1929 and were admitted in Paraguay where they founded, a year later, the Fernheim Colony.
Diverse privileges were granted to them: freedom of cult, exoneration of the oath and the military service and the right to have its own schools and educational institutions. In return the Paraguayan government waited for the colonization and economic qualification of the virgin Chaco.

The center of the Colony was called “Philadelphia”, later Philadelphia. After the war of the Chaco between Bolivia and Paraguay, that its aim in 1935 had, many left war materials were transformed into agricultural machineries.

There in 1937, due to the very difficult economic situation that it was lived, a third of the immigrants moved to the Eastern region of the country, founding the Friesland Colony.

Throughout the years, the mennonitas colonists have developed a transmitted specific culture through the religion, and a productive infrastructure that gives to its inhabitants high income per capita. They work with modern milky product farming manufacture, production techniques and processing of sesame and peanut.

Philadelphia is the main city of the center of the Chaco.