Front of the cathedral

This is the front of the Metropolitan Cathedral in downtown San Jose.  The main city square is behind the trees on the right.

As the buildings in the background suggest, most of San Jose consists of 20th century commercial buildings that make San Jose not a major tourist attraction despite the fact that it is by far the largest city in the country.

On our first visit to Costa Rica nearly 10 years ago, we took a tour by a leading U.S. travel company.  The tour started in a suburban San Jose hotel, and left the next morning for Monteverde and Arenal, without even going into the city.

This week we have photos of Vienna, Austria, posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Statue at the side of the cathedral

This is a statue in the side plaza of the Metropolitan Cathedral in downtown San Jose.  It is a refreshingly contemporary depiction of a priest and two childen

I am sorry that it was a very overcast late afternoon when I was there, so the photo lacks the vibrancy and contrast of better weather.

This week we have photos of Vienna, Austria, posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Stained glass window in the Metropolitan Cathedral, San Jose

The Metropolitan Cathedral is one of only two churches in Costa Rica with which I am familiar that is notable for classic religious art and architecture.

The other one is the Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles in Cartago, which was the colonial capitol.  I have shown it in the past.  It is the most important church in the country and is the site of pilgrimages that are joined at times by as may as one-fourth of the countries population of about 4 million people.  I have shown it in the past on this website.

This week we have photos of Vienna, Austria, posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Above the altar of San Jose's Metropolitan Cathedral

The area above the altar of the Metropolitan Cathedral features traditional Roman Catholic imagery, with artistry that one might expect of churches in Italy or Spain rather than Costa Rica.

Costa Rica grew as a nation of small family farms, largely ignored by Spanish colonial rulers, with the population scattered in villages and small towns in the country side, so there are not many large churches, unlike other Latin American countries such as Mexico.

This week we have photos of Vienna, Austria, posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Cathedral Rotunda

This is the interior of the dome of the Metropolitan Cathedral in San Jose.  It is unusual to see ornate church interiors in Costa Rica.

The National Cathedral was built in the 1870, replacing an 1802 predecessor that was destroyed in an earthquake.

This week we have photos of Vienna, Austria, posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

National Cathedral Altar Area

This is a view of the front of the National Cathedral.  I will show closer views of some of its elements in the next few days.

Today is Sunday, so we have new photos posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  This week we are showing photos of Vienna, Austria.

National Cathedral interior

Because I showed a photo from the steps of the National Cathedral, I will do a little series of photos from the interior.   This will give a perspective of the size of the cathedral.  It has a Greek Revival style, with the many pillars to support the roof.

This week we have photos of the architecture of Portugal posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Square Floor Tiles

This is an alternative choice that I had considered for yesterday's May 1 theme of "squares."  It is a section of the tile floor of the National Cathedral on the main square of downtown San Jose.

This week we have photos of the architecture of Portugal posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

May 1 Theme Day: Squares

For today's worldwide City Daily Photo theme of "squares" I chose this photo of the main square in downtown San Jose.

I took this photo from the steps of the National Cathedral.  The concrete gazebo is in the square and, I assume, is a venue for events.   There are lots of red taxicabs in the foreground.

I had considered using the square at the top of the bridge I posted yesterday for the theme, but chose this different type of square instead.

This week we have photos of the architecture of Portugal posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

To see how other City Daily Photo bloggers have interpreted the theme, use this link. 

Gold Lobster

This is a closer view of one of the gold lobsters in the Pre-Columiban Gold Museum in San Jose.  This looks rather realistic, although the artist took some license, if we want to get nit picky in comparison to anatomical details.  The front claws look small and the tail is large, but the skill and artistry is impressive, particularly for being more than 600 years old.

Rather than focusing on the details, I think the larger question is why did the artist decide to make a lobster.  There are lots of more attractive animals to choose for a subject.  Maybe he enjoyed the taste of lobster.

We have photos from a cruise up the east coast of Baja California in Mexico's Sea of Cortez posted this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Jaguar Metates

Here are some more of the stone jaguar metates in the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum in San Jose.

These metates were not used for grinding corn, as they do not show signs of being used.  Instead, they were funerary offerings buried with nobility between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D.  They come from northwest Costa Rica, which is the province where Tamarindo is located.

The skillfulness of the artisans who carved these is indeed impressive.  It is also interesting how ancient cultures incorporate animal designs into the most precious of objects, as metates buried with nobility must have been.

We have photos from a cruise up the east coast of Baja California in Mexico's Sea of Cortez posted this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Gold Monkey

After showing a pre-Columbian gold frog, lizard, bat, and lobsters, it should not be a surprise that the indigenous culture produced gold monkeys as well.

I assume that the monkeys interacted with the Native Americans even more than they do with modern people, as the pre-Columbian cultures certainly lived in closer proximity to wildlife than modern people.

This week we have photos from the Galapagos posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Gold Butterfly

Butterflies are abundant in Costa Rica, many of them  large and colorful.  The indigenous cultures centuries ago evidently admired the butterflies as well, as reflected by this specimens in the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum in San Jose.

This week we have photos from the Galapagos posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Gold Lobster Designs

These gold objects in the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum all have a lobster motif.  This is consistent with the location of the culture on the Nicoya Peninsula of northwest Costa Rica.

We continue to have lobster in the area today.  In fact, the beach where one of our two condos is located is Playa Langosta, which translates as Lobster Beach.  We occasionally see local fisherman with a few lobsters, and some of the local restaurants have local lobsters on the menu.  It appears that the native Americans enjoyed lobsters 1,000 years ago as much as we do today.


This week we have photos from the Galapagos posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Gold Lizard

A few days ago I showed a gold frog from the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum.  This is a gold lizard, or perhaps it is an iguana.

I guess it should not be a surprise that they would make gold jewelry in the shape of the animals around them.   Can you guess what other animals they might have used as subjects for their art?  I will show some additional examples in the days ahead.

This week we have photos from the Galapagos posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Pre-Columbian Chorotega style pottery

Costa Rica is known for its eco-tourism and not for its pre-Columbian culture, but this vase is an example of a pre-Columbian culture that has survived.  This vase in the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum in San Jose is similar in design and coloration to the Chorotega pottery that is made today in Guatil and nearby communities not far from Tamarindo.

I have shown modern examples of chorotega pottery in earlier posts, which can be seen by using this link.  There is even a store in Tamarindo that teaches visitors how to make their own chorotega pottery as souvenirs to take home.
 
Today is Sunday, so we have new photos posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  This week we are showing some additional photos form our recent trip to the Galapagos Islands.

Gold Jewelry

This exhibit in the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum showed how and where some of the items of gold jewelry were worn, such as the necklace that I showed yesterday.  For people who must have been challenged just to meet the basic necessities of life, they evidently prized jewelry and adornment.

This week we have photos of the Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Jaguar Metate

I have seen several Costa Rican jaguar metates before in museums in the USA, so I was very interested to see this one in the Gold Museum in San Jose.  These are from the time period of 1,000 A.D. - 1350 A.D.

This week we have photos of the Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Gold Anthropomorphic Figure

Just inside the door to the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum was this spectacular part human-part animal figure.

One curious aspect of the very impressive and extensive collection of pre-Columbian gold is the source of the gold.  Costa Rica did not have gold mining.  Columbus named Costa Rica the "rich coast" because the Native Americans who greeted him there appeared rich because of their gold.  But the gold came from elsewhere.

After  the Spanish realized that Costa Rica did not have gold or silver, they largely ignored it, but they did send indigenous Costa Ricans to Peru to work as slaves in the silver mines.  Costa Rica is the only country in Latin America without a liberator.  It never had a struggle for liberation.  When Spain granted independence to Nicaragua, it abandoned its sovereignty over Costa Rica as well.

This week we have photos of the Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Entrance to Pre-Columbian Gold Museum

Inside the large underground art museum was a vault-like door that is the entrance to the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum.  It is a museum within a museum.

Maybe the underground location of the museum, besides creating space for a plaza above ground, was also considered a good design for security reasons.  Art thieves can't break in or out of windows if there are no windows.

I will show photos of the collection beginning tomorrow.

This week we have photos of the Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.