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WHAT IS THE SANTA MARIA HOTEL?


The Santa María Hotel opened in January 2006 and is an innovative project of ethical tourism with a dual purpose:

 to prepare for discerning travellers a well organised visit to the Reductions in a spirit of pilgrimage, respecting the local culture and the faith-history of both past and present.
to ensure that all the profits from the venture go to benefit the local people of Santa María.



Foundation Cross
view from hotel to Foundation Cross
The Foundation Cross
View from the Hotel lounge
Monkeys in the square

The Santa María Hotel is in a prime location on the historic square which is original to the mission settlement. All the Reductions were centred around a large square such as this, and ours has the added advantage of shady trees where friendly monkeys live. Feeding the monkeys is one of the favourite activities of our young visitors.

Next to the hotel is the craft workshop where a sewing cooperative meets every weekday to embroider the appliqué bags, clothes and other items for which Santa María is now acquiring an international reputation. In front of the workshop is the foundational cross of Santa María: every Reduction started with the planting of a cross. Next to that is the esplanade – a stage where festivals of local folk dancing are held – and behind that is the church, which is built on the original site and in the traditional style of having tree trunks for columns. Directly facing the hotel is the museum, housed in a building which dates right back to the Reduction. All these features can be seen from the hotel’s lounge and front veranda.

santa maria hotel craft shop
Craft work from Santa María


This first hotel building has three double bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, but we also have a good selection of rooms in local family homes. In this way we can accommodate groups of more than six, and also cater for individual travellers who are looking for more economical accommodation. Groups use the hotel as a base and have their meals together at the hotel.
We plan to enlarge the hotel in the near future by converting the adjacent house to make another five bedrooms.

hotel bedroom
One of the bedrooms
The Back Porch


Santa María is a sacred place. It has a sacred history in the remote past (in the 17th and 18th century Jesuit Reduction), a sacred history in the recent past (in the Christian Agrarian Leagues of the 1960s and 70s, an early form of basic Christian community that was bloodily suppressed by the dictator Stroessner, see below), and a sacred present today (in the life of the Christian communities, and in the retreat house behind the museum where people come to make silent Ignatian retreats). Some people come to the hotel as formal pilgrimage groups, and others as families for a holiday. But everyone comes in a spirit of pilgrimage, that is, with respect for what Santa María has to offer, and a willingness to learn from the poor.

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