San Jose Attractions

The settlement, on the site of which the city ​​of San Jose was grown, was founded in 1737, and in 1824 a small settlement became the capital. Today San Jose is a big city, whose historical and cultural attractions attract a large number of tourists every year.

Museums

There are a lot of museums in the city, whose collections are unique without exaggeration.

  1. Perhaps the most famous of these is the Museum of Pre-Columbian Gold (Museo Oro Precolumbino). In it you can see a lot of gold items (ornaments, ritual objects, ingots) and other artifacts from the VI-XVI centuries, as well as a collection of coins.
  2. Another museum popular with tourists is the Museum of Jade (Museo del Jade), which contains more than 7000 thousand exhibits (this is the largest collection of jade products in the world!).
  3. Another world-famous museum of the Costa Rican capital - the National Museum - is housed in an ancient fort. It is possible to get acquainted with the history of settling the territory of Costa Rica and the development of the state, with the flora and fauna of the country. The building itself, once a barracks of the city garrison, also deserves attention.
  4. In the building where the city prison was once located, now is the Children's Museum , where children can use simulators to learn what an earthquake and other natural phenomena are, to learn how to dance and write music, and see a variety of scientific experiments.
  5. In the building of the former Atlantic Station the Railway Museum operates, in which visitors can learn about the development of transport communications, which led to the growth of the country's economy.
  6. The Museum of Art of Costa Rica has 6 rooms, where you can see the works of contemporary sculptors and artists.

Also in the city there is the Philately Museum, the Museum of Forms, Spaces and Sounds, the Museum of Dr. Raphael Angel Calderon Guardia, who was president of the country between 1940 and 1944, the Museum of Photography, the Museum of the History of Penitentiary Institutions, the Museum of Forensic Science and the Press Museum.

Other attractions

One of the most beautiful buildings of the city is the building of the National Theater . The money for its construction was collected thanks to an additional tax on coffee, for which the coffee magnates themselves, who want to raise money for building a theater in the capital, appeared. Very beautiful is the Plaza de la Cultura , which houses the Museum of Gold of the pre-Columbian era. Separate attention deserves the Cathedral of San Jose , erected in 1860 on the site, which was previously the church of San Jose, with which, in fact, which can be called the ancestor of the settlement. The cathedral impresses not only with its architecture, but also with colorful stained-glass windows.

The national park is very cozy: it has two well-known monuments: the national hero Juan Santamaria, who made a decisive contribution to the victory at the Battle of Rivas, and the monument to the national heroes of Central America who drove from the territory of William Walker and his corsairs. In Moracan Park, you should see a round rotunda called the Temple of Music, and a Japanese garden located in the northern part of the park. There are often different musical groups.

Another attraction of San Jose, which must be visited, is the National Stadium of Costa Rica - a modern building in the territory of which the main sports competitions of the country are held.