La Paz

La Paz is a city located in the Canelones Department of southern Uruguay at an elevation of 164 feet (50 meters) above sea level, positioned within the Montevideo metropolitan area and serving as an administrative center for its municipality.

Founded on February 28, 1872, by Ramón Álvarez, La Paz originally developed as a middle-class resort for wealthy Montevideo residents before evolving into an industrial center known for granite quarries that supplied materials to Montevideo and Buenos Aires throughout the early 20th century.

The city hosts Uruguay's only Jewish cemetery, established in 1917, reflecting its cultural diversity, and during the 1980s dictatorship, La Paz organized the Festival de Canto Popular as a form of cultural resistance that strengthened local identity and artistic expression.

La Paz is accessible via regional roads connecting it to larger urban centers, and the city uses postal code 90100 for correspondence and administrative purposes, with several bus lines linking it to Montevideo, Las Piedras, and Progreso.

The city features a monument dedicated to the picapedreros, or stonecutters, commemorating the workers who quarried granite and contributed to urbanization projects in the region, many of whom were Italian immigrants who settled in La Paz during its industrial boom.

Location: Canelones Department

Inception: 1872

Elevation above the sea: 50 m

GPS coordinates: -34.76167,-56.22333

Latest update: November 28, 2025 15:21