Eldorado is a city in the center-northeast of the
province
A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Misiones
Misiones (, ''Missions'') is one of the 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil to the north, east and south, and Corrientes P ...
, Argentina. It has 54,189 inhabitants as per the , making it the third most populated city in the province. It is the head town of the
Eldorado Department. It is located on the left-hand (eastern) banks of the Upper
Paraná River
The Paraná River ( ; ; ) is a river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina for some ."Parana River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. ...
, on
National Route 12, about 100km from the
Iguazú Falls and 206km from the provincial capital
Posadas, on the Argentina-
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 ...
border.
Eldorado was founded on 29 September 1919 as a rural settlement and a port on the Paraná by German-born Adolfo Julius Schwelm, naturalised British subject, who named it as a reference to the legend of
El Dorado
El Dorado () is a mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America. The king of this city was said to be so rich that he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust – either daily or on certain ceremonial occasions â ...
. The town was the center of the European
immigrant colonization of the area (which included groups of people from Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, England, and others).
The region's economy is based on
agriculture
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
, producing
tung, oranges, grapefruit and
yerba mate
Yerba mate or yerba maté (), ''Ilex paraguariensis'', is a plant species of the holly genus native to South America. It was named by the French botanist Augustin Saint-Hilaire. The leaves of the plant can be steeped in hot water to make a bev ...
. Tourism also plays a part, with main activities being sailing, sports fishing (
golden dorado), and sports hunting (
tapir
Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a Suidae, pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk (proboscis). Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, South and Centr ...
, deer, wild boars). Eldorado has an airport.
Towns and villages
*
9 de Julio (Misiones)
References
Municipality of Eldorado— Official website.
*
at WelcomeArgentina.
Populated places in Misiones Province
Populated places established in 1919
Cities in Argentina
{{Misiones-geo-stub