Kaaguy Jehasapa

Ka’aguy Jehasapa, the Guaraní name behind Caazapá, lies in the wooded interior of eastern Paraguay. Guaraní communities inhabited this country before Franciscan missionaries arrived at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The name evokes the forest that surrounded the settlement. Streams and fertile ground supported cultivation in a region where forest and open clearings met.

In 1606–1607 the Franciscan Luis de Bolaños founded the reduction of San José de Caazapá among Guaraní people. Bolaños worked in their language and prepared a Guaraní catechism for missionary use. Local tradition connects him with the spring known as Ykua Bolaños, which became a lasting landmark of the town. The Franciscan reduction continued through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, bringing Indigenous residents together under mission administration while their language remained central to local life.

The later city of Villarrica lies nearby.