Yes, I know. If you visit Costa Rica – or are even considering making a trip there – it is not for the history. It is for nature, for animal spotting, for outdoor adventures, for pristine beaches, and for an incredible diversity of life and landscapes. But history? I’m sure not. And I don’t blame you.
And yet, Costa Rica, as does any country, has a history. And it even has a reasonably interesting one. It might not match that of some of its Central American neighbors, but if you have a spare day in San Jose – heck, even part of a day – around flights or tour plans, you can see some of that, and learn about this country outside of its natural beauty.
Christopher Columbus first landed in Costa Rica on his fourth voyage in 1502. He gave the area its name, meaning rich coast, since the natives he first met wore rich gold and jade adornments. Estimates of the native population at that point seem to be in the 400,000 range, basically divided between those in the north, largely on the Pacific Coast, who adopted similar rituals to the Mesoamerican peoples of Central America and Mexico, and those in the south who seem to have been more ideologically consistent with native peoples in Panama and Colombia.
While little remains of those native people, whose population declined to roughly 10,000 over the next century, there is one absolutely fascinating thing left from the now-extinct Diquis culture: stone spheres. The best collection of those outside of the Diquis Delta along the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica can be found at the country’s National Museum in San Jose.
The National Museum of Costa Rica sits inside a beautiful building that was once the headquarters of the country’s armed forces. (The armed forces were abolished after a brief civil war in 1948, but we won’t be going that far into modern Costa Rican history here.) A visit starts with a butterfly garden, so you know it’s going to be a good time. But it is the native historical artifacts that truly makes a couple hours here worthwhile.
More than 300 stone spheres have been discovered in the area inhabited by the Diquis people. They date as far back as about 300 BCE (and as recent as almost a millennium later) and range in size from a few centimeters to over two meters (six plus feet) in diameter. And, most fascinatingly, we have no idea what their purpose was. Theories abound, with one that size of a sphere represented political importance of a household, but there is no concrete evidence of any actual meaning. But they are cool.
Columbus, distracted by the glitz of the native costumes, believed this to be an area rich in natural materials. So the Spanish, as they were wont to do, conquered the region, a campaign made more difficult by the high mountains and needing to be done from both sides. After a couple failed colonies, the city of Cartago was established in the country’s central valley in 1563, and from there the mineral wealth of Costa Rica would be exploited.
Only there wasn’t any. The gold and jade worn by natives here were traded for rather than sourced locally, and Costa Rica is almost completely bereft of meaningful mineral deposits. So the area and its capital Cartago remained a backwater of the Captaincy of Guatemala, and the pre-Colombian population of 400,000 wouldn’t be surpassed until the 19th century.
And even more miserably, Costa Rica was a colony prone to earthquakes. One has to only visit Cartago, today a city of about 150,000 just twenty or so miles from San Jose, to see that very little stands from colonial times. Take the city’s foundational church, Santiago Apostal, as an example. A church has been built – or more accurately, been attempted to have been built – here since 1575, but every time construction neared its end, an earthquake destroyed the building. The most recent iteration, always with the same name, dates to 1870, and now hosts a park inside its ruins.
But just a few blocks away, Cartago’s top sight stands as a completed church. The Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles is a church of pilgrimage for Catholics from all over Central America. First built in 1639, it has been improved and expanded over the centuries, with an exterior of concrete and an interior of wood.
As the story goes, a young woman found a doll of the Virgin Mary in a creek. She took it home, and it disappeared, only to be found again in its original place. Church leaders took this to mean that a church should be built here, and unlike the other less than a mile away, it has withstood the test of time. The basilica has a Black Madonna – this is rare in the Catholic world – along with a fountain of holy water, and these attract mobs daily but even more in August for the end of the pilgrimage.
Cartago was the colonial capital of Costa Rica throughout Spanish times. After independence in 1821, it was decided to move the capital to the more Republican (and by that time, larger) San Jose, making the latter one of the youngest capital cities in Latin America since it had only been established in 1736. Along with Cartago, Alajuela, and Heredia, San Jose and the central valley is where the majority of Costa Ricans live, but few tourists visit for more than a stopover.
But it is for that very reason that it is worthwhile to give yourself a day – or even more – here. After all, Costa Rica is a vibrant country with more than six million inhabitants, and few of those live in the small tourist-focused towns outside of the major natural sights. So whether it is Cartago, the colonial capital with its churches, or San Jose, the modern capital with its museums, that interests you, making a visit to learn a bit about the history of this wonderful place is a good use of a bit of your nature-focused vacation time.
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