San Bernardino (colloquially known as San Ber) is a town in

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 ...

, located on the shores of Ypacarai Lake in the

Cordillera Department Cordillera () is a department in Paraguay. The capital is the city of Caacupé. History During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries this area of the country was going through a serious crisis due to population bellicosity of the Indians f ...

. It is a popular holiday resort for people from Greater Asunción.

History

The town was founded in 1881 by German and Swiss immigrants, among them Santiago Schaerer, founder and first colony manager, and was renamed after Saint Bernard to honor

Bernardino Caballero Bernardino Caballero de Añazco Melgarejo y Genes (20 May 1839, Ybycuí, Paraguay – 26 February 1912, Asunción) was a Paraguayan military officer and politician. He was a General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), off ...

, president of Paraguay between 1880 and 1886. In the last decades of the nineteenth century was built the Hotel del Lago, where the German anti-Semitic activist

Bernhard Förster Ludwig Bernhard Förster (31 March 1843 – 3 June 1889) was a German teacher and antisemitic activist. He was married to Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, the sister of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Life Förster became a leading fi ...

spent the last six weeks of his life, before committing suicide on June 3, 1889 by taking an overdose of strychnine. Inspired by a letter from Richard Wagner and his own anti-Semitism, he traveled to Paraguay to create a model German settlement with his wife

Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche Therese Elisabeth Alexandra Förster-Nietzsche (10 July 1846 – 8 November 1935) was the sister of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the creator of the Nietzsche Archive in 1894. Förster-Nietzsche was two years younger than her brother ...

(sister of the philosopher

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

) and several German families. Their efforts, at the site called Nueva Germania, were not successful, leading him to go to San Bernardino.

Tourism

Having one of the highest

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

in the country, San Bernardino is the summer home site of traditional families from Greater Asunción. The peak tourist season in San Bernardino is from December to mid February, which is the summer season in the country. During this time young people from

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 ...

and neighbouring cities and towns meet around the main meeting points, which are clubs and pubs at night and public spaces in the morning. There are breweries and places that sell traditional German food and drinks. The town contains a museum.

Demography

According to the Statistics, Surveys and Censuses Bureau of Paraguay, In 2012 San Bernardino has a total of 20,491 inhabitants. Due to its colonization, the German and Spanish influences are visible and the city is predominantly

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, where 85% are made up of whites of Italian, Spanish, German and Swiss descent, and roughly 15% are made up of mixed race (mestizo).

Gallery

File:16121-brochure-jgl-105.jpg, José Asunción Flores Amphitheater, in San Bernardino, Paraguay. File:Café_Francés_in_San_Bernardino.jpg, Restaurants in San Bernardino. File:San_Bernardino_PARAGUAY.JPG, San Bernardino, Paraguay. File:Hotel_del_Lago_San_Bernardino.jpg, One of the hotels in San Bernardino, Cordillera, Paraguay. File:Hassler_Bierschlucht_San_Bernardino_2000.jpg, A house built by Emil Hassler in 1898, in a place known as ''Bierschlucht'' in San Bernardino.

Sister cities

Villa Carlos Paz Villa Carlos Paz () is a city in the center-north of the provinces of Argentina, province of Córdoba Province (Argentina), Córdoba, Argentina, in the south of the Punilla Valley, lying on the western slope of the Sierras Chicas. It has a populati ...

, Argentina *

Tarija Tarija or San Bernardo de la Frontera de Tarixa is a city in southern Bolivia. Founded in 1574, Tarija is the largest city and capital and municipality within the Tarija Department, with an airport ( Capitán Oriel Lea Plaza Airport, (TJA)) of ...

, Bolivia

Sources

World Gazeteer: Paraguay
– World-Gazetteer.com
DGEEC

References

External links

The official website of San Bernardino (Spanish)
{{Authority control Populated places in the Cordillera Department Populated places established in 1881 1881 establishments in Paraguay