Costanera Avenue

Since old times people have preferred to settle down near rivers and lakes. Water gave them life, helped in agriculture and cattle breeding, and also was a natural defensive fortification against enemies. But there was also a lot of trouble with nearby ponds: banks constantly overflowed, destroyed buildings, flooded the fields, and took lives of livestock. People began to strengthen the coastlines, so the first embankments appeared. Later they performed different functions: still strengthen the banks, made the approach to water easier, and served as piers for water transport.

Today, the functionality of the city embankments construction is not always the primary task of the project, the aesthetic beauty of landscape design often plays a more important role. Such embankment was built in 2012 in Encarnación, the cultural capital of Paraguay, though the first construction project was entirely functional. The goal was to enhance the capacity of the hydroelectric power station, but numerous negotiations made a huge number of amendments and changes. Initially, even the length of the embankment was only 7 km instead of 27, stretching along the Paraná River at present.

The construction began in 2007 and lasted for 5 long years before the citizens of Encarnación saw all this splendor and could walk along the bank of their favorite river. Since the very opening, it has become one of the main city attractions and a popular place both for guests and residents. Incredibly well-groomed green areas with lots of comfortable benches and picturesque views of the water, brick-red from the local soil, fascinate with their fantastic beauty. Besides, along this famous embankment, there are several urban beaches with red sands, similar to the Paraná River waters, reminiscent of Martian landscapes.