Luque () is a city in Central Department of

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

, part of the Gran Asunción metropolitan area. Both 1635 and 1750 have been recorded as dates of its founding. It was temporarily the capital of Paraguay in 1868 during the Paraguayan War before relocation to San Estanislao. The city is home to Paraguay's main international airport, Silvio Pettirossi International Airport and the Ñu Guasú Park, which is where the Paraguayan Olympic Committee is also located. The continental governing body of association football in South America,

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

, has its headquarters approximately 3 minutes from the airport, which hosts the South American Football Museum. The 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup took place in Luque. When it existed, ARPA – Aerolíneas Paraguayas had its headquarters in the ARPA Terminal on the grounds of the airport."Directory: World airlines." ''

Flight International ''Flight International'', formerly ''Flight'', is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", i ...

''. 16–22 March 2004
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It is a center of production of guitars and Paraguayan harps as well as ''Filigranas'',

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

and

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

filigree

jewelry Jewellery (or jewelry in American English) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment such as brooches, ring (jewellery), rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the ...

including the seven-band ring ''Carretón de Siete Ramales''.

Toponymy

The name Luque is first mentioned in 1635, in an act of the Cabildo of

Asunción Asunción (, ) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay of Asunción in the north ...

when the colonial governor of the Governorate of Paraguay, Martín Ledesma de Valderrama, granted two leagues of land to a Spanish Captain named Miguel Antón de Luque in a place near Asunción known as ''las Salinas''. According to the act this was the place where Captain Antón de Luque had been working an

Encomienda The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish Labour (human activity), labour system that rewarded Conquistador, conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. In theory, the conquerors provided the labourers with benefits, including mil ...

for more than twenty years. A century later, in 1743, another Miguel de Luque, a descendant of the first mentioned, made a donation by testament of a section of those lands to the

Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...

who built a chapel for the devotion of the Virgin of the Rosary in 1750 - 1755, and from that time the old name of Salinas was changed to Valle de Luque. In 1781, governor Pedro Melo de Portugal made the first administrative division of the Governorate of Paraguay into six towns and designated the district with the name Partido de Luque.

Geography

The city of Luque extends from Ypacaraí Lake to the western bank of the Paraguay River. Luque is located to the East of

and borders the following cities: * To the North with Mariano Roque Alonso, Limpio and Nueva Colombia * To the South with Fernando de la Mora and San Lorenzo * To the East with Areguá * To the West with

* To the Southeast with Capiatá

Demography

Luque is the third-most populated city of Paraguay, after the

capital city A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state (polity), state, province, department (administrative division), department, or other administrative division, subnational division, usually as its ...

and Ciudad del Este. It is the most populated city of the Central Department of Paraguay.

Twin towns

Luque is twinned with: * Ituzaingó, Buenos Aires, Argentina * San Juan Bautista, Paraguay * Luque, Spain

Notable people

* José Luis Chilavert * Egni Eckert * Raúl Vicente Amarilla * Pablo César Aguilar * Osvaldo Martínez * Hilarión Osorio

Gallery

File:Asunción - Edificio CSF.JPG,

Headquarters, in Luque, Paraguay File:Retablo papal.jpg, The main altarpiece made of maize, calabaza and coconut, especially for the 2015 visit by Pope Francis to Paraguay, in Luque File:Monumento Cooperación Paraguay Korea 1 - panoramio.jpg, The

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Cooperation Monument, in Luque File:Hinchada Sportivo Luqueño.jpg, ''Chanchohooligans'', one of many Sportivo Luqueño's groups of fans File:Paraguayan Air Force.jpg, Paraguayan Air Force, in Luque File:Lapacho rosa en floración - panoramio.jpg, A '' Tajy'' at Ñu Guasú Park, Luque, Paraguay

References

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