Top attractions and things to do in Cartago
While most of the city was demolished during the seismic events in 1823 and 1910, this city still has enough attractions and things to do to keep you busy. The old ruins are worth visiting as well as some cathedrals.
#1 Visit Las Ruinas
The ruined Iglesia de la Parroquía, known as Las Ruinas, dominates the paved Parque Central. It's as popular with a cacophony of roosting great-tailed grackles as it is with the townsfolk.
Originally built in 1575, the church was repeatedly destroyed by earthquakes but stubbornly rebuilt every time, until eventually the giant earthquake of 1910 vanquished it for good.
Only the elegantly tumbling walls remain, enclosing pretty subtropical gardens.
#2 Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles
Cartago’s cathedral, properly named the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles, was built in a decorative Byzantine style after the previous basílica was destroyed in an earthquake in 1926.
This huge cement-grey structure with its elaborate wood-panelled interior is home to La Negrita, the representation of the Virgin of Los Ángeles, patron saint of Costa Rica.
On this spot, on August 2, 1635, the Virgin reportedly appeared to a poor peasant girl in the form of a doll made of stone. Each time the girl took the doll away to play with it, it re-appeared on the spot where she had found it. Seen as a sign, the church was built soon after.
In the left-hand antechamber of the cathedral you’ll see silver ex votos (devotional sculptures) of every imaginable shape and size, including horses, planes, grasshoppers representing plagues of locusts, and hearts with swords driven through them.
This is a Latin American tradition stretching from Mexico to Brazil, whereby the faithful deposit representations of whatever they need cured, or whatever they fear, to the power of the Almighty.