La Santísima Trinidad de Paraná, usually called the Trinidad Jesuit Mission, is an archaeological complex in the district of Trinidad, in Paraguay’s Itapúa Department. It is one of two Paraguayan missions that UNESCO inscribed together in 1993; the other is Jesús de Tavarangue. The pair belongs to a larger series of 30 Jesuit missions established in the Río de la Plata basin during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Trinidad stands out within that history because UNESCO identifies it as the best-preserved urban complex and one of the most ambitious missions in the region. Its remains make the plan of a once-organized settlement legible in stone.
The mission was established in 1706, later than many of the reductions, and its building program continued through the eighteenth century. UNESCO dates the great stone church to about 1745 and attributes its design to the Milanese architect Juan Bautista Prímoli. The complex covered roughly eight hectares. These dates describe different stages: the foundation of the settlement and the construction of its major church are not the same event. That distinction helps explain why a visitor sees both a planned community and a monumental religious building developed over time, rather than a single structure built all at once.