Yapeyu

Yapeyú stood on the Uruguay River as one of the Guaraní mission towns of the Río de la Plata. Founded by Jesuits in 1627, it became a centre for a wide surrounding territory and its cattle estates. Guaraní residents farmed, tended livestock and worked in crafts under the mission system. River routes linked the town to other missions, while overland routes connected its estates to the south.

The expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish dominions in 1767 brought their administration of Yapeyú to an end, although the town remained part of the mission region. Its council managed estates including Mandisoví, established in 1777. In 1817 Portuguese forces destroyed Yapeyú during the conflicts that followed the collapse of Spanish colonial rule. The ruins preserved the memory of a town whose history joined Guaraní communities, missionary rule and the struggle for control of the Uruguay frontier.