Cartago

The city of Cartago was first established in 1563 by the Spanish conquistador Juan Vásquez de Coronado. The original village was situated between the Coris and Purires Rivers, several kilometers to the southwest of the present day city. This location proved to be poorly chosen, however, since the settlement was flooded so often that it came to be known as the "City of Mud," and in 1572 was transferred to another site closer to what is now San José.

About two years later, the population was again transferred back to the current site of the city of Cartago, which remained the capital of the province of Costa Rica throughout the colonial period. In 1823, two years after independence from Spain, the country's governmental seat was moved to San José and Cartago was left to develop as a provincial capital of the new republic.

When Vásquez de Coronado first explored the eastern end of the Central Valley he found an area populated by numerous indigenous groups, and thus the Spaniards set about the mission of christianizing the native peoples. The first church built in Costa Rica was constructed during the 1560's in the Valley of Ujarrás near the Reventazón River. The settlement was eventually abandoned, however, due to recurring floods and episodes of pestilence. The ruins of the church are still visible on the site and have been declared a national monument.

The fate of the church in the Cartago parish has not been much better. Construction began in 1574, but between then and 1910 the building had to be rebuilt five times because of earthquake damage. Following the massive destruction caused by the Cartago quake of 1910, the church was abandoned and the ruins now form the centerpiece of a park in the middle of town.

Three blocks to the east of the parish ruins stands the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels, an impressive Byzantine style church which is the national religious shrine of Costa Rica. Every year thousands of devotees from across the country make a pilgrimage on foot to honor Virgin Mary and to render homage for favors conceded. This pilgrimage coincides with the feast day of the Virgin of the Angels held on August 2nd to commemorate the miraculous appearance (and subsequent reappearance) of a small carved image of the virgin mother to a young native girl in 1635. The church was erected on the actual site and the rock on which the statue appeared can be seen in a crypt entered from the left-hand side of the church's altar.

This interior province consists primarily of the Reventazón River valley and the surrounding high mountains to the north (Irazú and Turrialba Volcanoes) and south (Cerro de la Muerte and Mount Chirripó) and is situated practically entirely on the Atlantic side of the continental divide. Therefore, the moisture brought in by the trade winds directly affects most of the province, although the city of Cartago itself is in the rain shadow of the 11,260 feet high Irazú Volcano and as a result is one of the driest parts of Costa Rica, after the lower portions of Guanacaste province. The overall high elevation of Cartago province and frequent cloud cover combine to impart relatively cool temperatures throughout the year.

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