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The Ruins of Cartago Cathedral

We finally left Heredia early one sunny morning and drove down to and through San José on our way to the nearby city of Cartago. We wanted to see the ruins of the cathedral, destroyed by an earthquake, of this former capital of Costa Rica. The city was small and friendly and blessed by a wonderfully cool climate being at 1400 meters. We parked on the street opposite the ruins and paid a parking fee to the lady in the jewelry store. We're not sure whether jewelry store owners were preferred for this job, but in Heredia the parking tickets were also sold by the jewelry store! The woman assured us that our car would come to no harm as we set out to visit the church. We were disappointed to learn that the ruins were locked up and so we wouldn't be able to wander through the garden spaces left in the roofless nave. But we did get to admire the sturdy walls that remain and peek through the gates at the tranquil interior.

Instead of lingering in the ruins, we wandered through the streets a little, finding some amazingly cheap digital video tapes for Gerry's camera, and getting back to our car before our parking permit ran out. Then it was off to the other end of town to visit the sanctuary of the patron saint of Costa Rica, Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles, or La Negrita as her statue is known more familiarly.

Santuario de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles, Cartago, Costa Rica

Santuario de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles

The Santuario is a very revered church and pilgrimage site in Costa Rica encompassing a spring that is supposed to have special healing qualities. The building is very lovely, laid out as a latin cross but with the altar at the bottom of the cross rather than the top and the transepts therefore near the main entrance. The entire ceiling and area above the many arches are in coffered wood decorated with stencilled white crosses. The support pillars are all 4-ply and painted with geometrical designs in dark green, red, brown, and silver. The result is very rich and elegant. The altar has a very lovely gilded baldachin that holds an extremely small statue of the Virgin Mary dressed in rich gold brocade. All of the windows are of stained glass of very high quality. The unusual feature of the windows is that the ”painting“ takes up only the center of the window, leaving a border of unpainted glass all around. The effect is very nice.

Santuario de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles

Our guidebook tells us that the church is the target of an annual pilgrimage on foot from San José, 22 kms away. It must be something like the annual pilgrimage that we witnessed in Guadalajara, Mexico, the Romeria de la Virgen de Zapopan. It takes place in August and must be a sight to be seen.

Santuario de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles