5 historic spots to visit in CR
Historic places take me to simpler times and make me think about how life was when people used to use those installations. Everything set in the middle of our busy life today.
Usually when I’m traveling somewhere new I like to research a little about that spot’s history and if there’s a tour I can take to be in those landmarks.
Here I feature 5 Costa Rican landmarks I liked a lot you can visit whenever nearby:
Museo de Arte Costarricense
Right in San José downtown at one side of the legendary La Sabana park there’s the Costa Rican Museum of art, this was Costa Rica’s first international airport, back in 1940. It opened its gates and was working until 1955.
The “Salon Dorado” is a beautiful room used to host diplomatic gatherings you can visit and appreciate the carvings of the mural.
It now hosts as well the “Jardín de las esculturas” a place outdoors that displays statues of costa rican artists, it is gorgeous during dry season and specially during the afternoon.
Casona de Santa Rosa
This place is not only historic because of what happened in the estate, but because of the environment you feel when being there. It is surrounded by the largest dry tropical forest in the world, it is very impressive.
The Casona is one of the biggest estates in Costa Rica ever since 1663. Located in Guanacaste it’s where the Santa Rosa battle took place. You can follow the banners and see where and how the battle happened as well as seeing artifacts from those years.
It’s an interesting building made out of ADOBE with lots of open space for the activities like bringing firewood to cook, horses and ox of coming travelers.
It is a key spot of Costa Rica’s history, try and go whenever you can.
Museo Nacional
Now known as the National Museum it used to be military barracks during middle 1920s and was one protagonist in the 1948 battle. You can visit the cells and see some artifacts from that era, but mainly this building is now a pre-columbian art and social facts about our ancestors.
There’s a butterfly garden within the installations you’ll go through, it gives you life in the middle of San Jose Downtown.
Monumento Guayabo
No place shows best the mix of races and cultures that has built Costa Rican people than Guayabo. This destination shows you remains of a city faded long ago, some say about 1000 AC.
Artifacts and art show influence from North American people as well as South American.
Located at the South side of the Turrialba Volcano this small yet interesting spot is known for it’s engineering achievements and techniques used such long time ago.
Las ruinas de Ujarrás
Known to be the first church built in Costa Rica to worship the Virgin Mary, what you can see today are the remains of a colonial construction devastated by floods and earthquakes.
Legend tells that when british pirates tried to invade the village in 1666 the miracle of the Nuestra Señora de la Limpia Concepción helped the villagers defeat them.
The Village of Ujarrás was deserted around early 1800 because of health and economic issues, villagers went on and founded Paraíso de Cartago.
Now you can get to the place and enjoy a beautiful picnic in the wide gardens surrounding the church. It is at about 1,25 hours ride from San José Downtown, so you can have a nice one day tour.
