Candelaria is a department of the province 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 Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

). It contains the cities, towns, and villages of Bonpland, Candelaria, Cerro Corá, Loreto, Mártires, Profundidad, and Santa Ana. It borders the departments of

San Ignacio San Ignacio (the Spanish language name of St. Ignatius (disambiguation), St. Ignatius) is a common toponym in parts of the world where that language is or was spoken: Argentina * San Ignacio, Argentina, Misiones Province * San Ignacio Miní, a ...

to the east and northeast,

Oberá Oberá, formerly Svea, is a city in the Mesopotamia, Argentina, interfluvial province of Misiones Province, Misiones, Argentina, and the head town of the Oberá Department. It is located 96 km east of the provincial capital Posadas, Misiones, ...

to the far east,

Leandro N. Alem Leandro Nicéforo Alem (born Leandro Alén; 11 March 1841 – 1 July 1896) was an Argentine politician, founder and leader of the Radical Civic Union. He was the uncle and political teacher of Hipólito Yrigoyen. He was also an active Freemaso ...

to the south and southeast,

Capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

to the west and southwest, and the

Republic of Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. It has a population of around 6 ...

to the north, separated by the

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. ...

. The department has an area of 920 km², equivalent to 3.07% of the total province. Its population is 35,618 inhabitants, according to the 2001 census (INDEC).

History

Background

King Carlos III Charles III (; 20 January 1716 – 14 December 1788) was King of Spain in the years 1759 to 1788. He was also Duke of Parma and Piacenza, as Charles I (1731–1735); King of Naples, as Charles VII; and King of Sicily, as Charles III (or V) (1735� ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

signed on April 2, 1767, in the

Royal Palace of El Pardo The Royal Palace of El Pardo (, ) is one of the official residences of the Spanish royal family and one of the oldest, being used by the Spanish monarchs since Henry III of Castile in the 15th century. The palace is owned by the Spanish governme ...

, the order known as the "Royal Decree," by which the expulsion of the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

from all the domains of the

Crown of Spain The monarchy of Spain or Spanish monarchy () is the constitutional form of government of Spain. It consists of a hereditary monarch who reigns as the head of state, being the highest office of the country. The Spanish monarchy is constitu ...

was dictated. In compliance with the Royal Order in 1768,

Francisco de Paula Bucarelli y Ursúa Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Commu ...

, who was the governor of the Río de la Plata, would organize a military expedition to expel the Jesuits from the Guarani missions. On June 16 of the same year, they reached the abandoned fortress of San Antonio del Salto Chico on the eastern bank of the

Uruguay River The Uruguay River ( ; ) is a major river in South America. It flows from north to south and forms parts of the boundaries of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of La Mesopotamia from the other two countr ...

, which had been built on October 6, 1757, but abandoned in 1763, restoring it to serve as a base of operations, as a supply depot, and as a detention center for Jesuit priests. On August 5, 1768, the imprisoned priests in the fortress were sent to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

to later be deported to

Formation of the Misiones departments during the Peruvian viceroyal period

Governor Bucarelli would issue ordinances on August 23, 1768, by which he would assign to the government 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 ...

the reductions of Our Lady of Belén, on the

Ypané River The Ypané River (Spanish, Río Ypané) is a river of Paraguay. It is a tributary of the Paraguay River. See also *List of rivers of Paraguay A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility ...

— founded in 1760 east of present-day Concepción del Paraguay — and those of San Joaquín, on the banks of the Acaray River, and San Estanislao, near the

Monday River The Monday River is a river of Paraguay. It flows and empties into the Parana River, just south of the tri-border mark point of the Triple Frontier The Triple Frontier (, ) is a tri-border area along the junction of Argentina, Brazil and P ...

(both founded in 1747 and 1749 respectively), and with the rest of the territory of the Missions he would divide it between two interim governments, one called Candelaria with its namesake departmental center, awarded to Captain Juan Francisco de la Riva Herrera, and the other named Yapeyú with its headquarters in the town of San Miguel, which would be under the orders of Captain Francisco Bruno de Zavala, who would later be appointed "interim general governor of Misiones" — whose capital would be the town of Candelaria — due to the new ordinances of the same governor of Buenos Aires, dated January 15, 1770. With centralized command under Captain Zavala, three departments were created under the charge of the dragon lieutenants of the Buenos Aires Regiment. The new governor of Buenos Aires,

Juan José de Vértiz y Salcedo Juan José de Vértiz y Salcedo (1719–1799) was a Spanish colonial politician born in New Spain (now Mexico), and Viceroy of the Río de la Plata. Biography He was born in 1719 in Mérida, Yucatán (now Mexico). Son of a prominent peninsula ...

, future Viceroy of the Rio de la Plata from 1778, would grant greater administrative independence to the newly formed departments, putting them under deputy governors, thus assuming in Yapeyú, Juan de San Martín, future father of the patriot general

José de San Martín José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (; 25 February 177817 August 1850), nicknamed "the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru", was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and central parts of South America's succe ...

, in the year 1775.

The large department of Candelaria in the Rio de la Plata viceroyal period

As part of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata, the Royal Ordinance of Intendants of January 28, 1782, created the Government Tenure of the Thirty Towns of the Guarani Missions with greater administrative and religious influence from Asunción in the territory of Candelaria, with the remaining areas under Buenos Aires influence. The then-large department of Candelaria, which included the current departments of Itapúa in the Republic of Paraguay (except the town of San Cosme), and those of San Ignacio and Capital (in the Argentine Nation), encompassed the town of Candelaria, which was the departmental headquarters and at the same time the capital of the governorship, in addition to the towns of Santa Ana, Loreto, San Ignacio Miní, Corpus, located on the left bank of the Paraná River, and on the right, the towns of Encarnación de Itapúa, Trinidad, and Jesús.

References

{{coord missing, Argentina Departments of Misiones Province