Santa María la Mayor

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Location of the most important reductions, with present political divisions.

Reducción de Santa María la Mayor (Reduction of Holy Maria Mayor), located in the Santa María Department of the Misiones Province, Argentina, at aproximate coordinates 27°33′S 55°20′W, was one of the missions or reductions founded in the 17th century by the Jesuits in the Americas during the Spanish colonial period.

The Jesuit reduction was found in founded in 1626, and by 1744 it held a population of 993. It was abandoned when the Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish colonies in 1767. The ruins of the reduction were declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984, together with other reductions in the area. The ruins have been taken over by vegetation, and are not as well preserved as those of San Ignacio Miní, also in Misiones.