Architecture of Costa Rica
When one travels to the European continent, it is almost impossible to go away without realizing that truely was traveled in the time. This must to the architectonic feats mainly that are in any place.
The architecture of Costa Rica does not stop being less impressive, with a mixture of Spanish influence, indigenous and colonial. After the arrival of Columbus in 1502, many of the first constructions were of Spanish style, and it was not but until the century XVI that the colonial architecture began to prosper. The cultural constructions began to emerge with the culture of the coffee that laid the foundations the huge structure channel such as the National Theater in San jOse, finalized in 1897. Costa Rica can boast of the legacy of 100 years promoting the institutional architecture that turned around its own cultural roots. The religious, governmental and educative buildings will continue being sites of interest of San jOse. The diversification of the architecture in Costa Rica extends from the European influence to its own Spanish patrimony. One single one can be astonished at the prominent works of styles neogothic and ecclesiastical. There are seven concerned metallic structures of Belgium. The “Arts Beaux” neoclassic, the Bisantina influence and the present neoArab are hardly one of the many architectonic subjects that they embrace this beautiful country.
If at the moment a stroll by the capital is made, the great influence of the stylistic currents derived from the Bauhaus and Him will be seen Corbusier.
It is very probable that any visitor can capture the crosscurrents of the diversification of the architecture that Costa Rica must offer to the world.
LIST OF HISTORICAL BUILDINGS OF SAN JOSE
| 1 NACIONAL THEATER Avenue 2da, Street 3 (1890-1896) | 2 SUPERIOR SCHOOL OF YOUNG LADIES AND OLD SCHOOL VITALIA MADRIGAL Street 3 between Avenues 4 and 6 (1888-1893) | 3 CENTRAL BASE OF SAN JOSE Avenues 2 and 4 between Streets Central and 2da (1880) |
| 4 THEATER MELICO SALAZAR Avenue 2da and Central Street (1927) | 5 BUILDING THE ALHAMBRA (American Pension) Street 2 between Avenues Central and 2da (1903) | 6 BUILDING OF POST OFFICE Street 2 between Central Avenue and 2da (1910-1913) |
| 7 BUILDING HERDOCIA Avenue 3 between Streets 3 and 4 (Beginnings 1900s) | 8 COSTA RICAN CENTER OF SCIENCE AND THE CULTURE (Old Penitentiary Power station) 3 avenue and Central Street (1906-1916) | 9 BANK OF COSTA RICA (Old building of the Warehouse Luis Ollé) Street 2 between Central Avenue and 2da (Beginnings 1900s) |
| 10 BANK BARUCH, CARVAJAL AND TRISTAN (BCT) Central street between Avenues 1 and 3 (1897) | 11 “THE LARGE HOUSE” (Old Macaya Ironworks) Central Central street between Avenues and 1 (Beginnings 1900s) | 12 BUILDING OF THE OLD STORE NEW CENTURY Central Central street between Avenues and 1 (1913) |
| 13 BUILDING STEINVORTH Street 1 between Avenues Cenmtral and 1 (1900) | 14 BUILDING KNOHR Central avenue and Street 1 (1914) | 15 THEATER VARIETIES Central street 5 between Avenues and 1 (1891-1913) |
| 16 BUILDING ESQUINERO Street 5 and Reconciled 1 (Beginnings 1900s) | 17 COMMERCIAL DELEGATION OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC Street 1 between Avenues 1 and 3 (Beginnings 1900s) | 18 CULTURAL ALLIANCE FRANCO-COSTARRICENSE Avenue 7, Street 5 (1895) |
| 19 CASA OF THE ARCHBISHOP CARLOS H. RODRIGUEZ Q. Street 3, Reconciled 13 (1920) | 20 CASA OF OFELIA MA. BOUNDARY CUBERO Avenue 9, Street 5 (Beginnings 1900s) | 21 MARIO CASA UGLY GONZA'LES Street 9 (bis) between Avenues 7 and 9 |
| 22 METALLIC BUILDING Avenue 5, Street 9 (1890-1895) | 23 TEMPLE OF MUSIC Avenue 3, Street 7 (1920) | 24 BUILDING (Long Key) Avenue 1 (bis) between Streets 7 and 9 (Beginnings 1900s) |
| 25 BUILDING THE ACACIAS Avenue 1 (bis) between Streets 7 and 9 (Beginnings 1920s) | 26 YELLOW CASA Avenue 7 between Streets 7 and 9 (1917-1919) | 27 NATIONAL CENTER OF CULTURE - CENAC- (Old National Factory of Licores - LANTERN) Avenues 7 and 3 between Streets 13 and 11 (1870) |
| 28 NACIONAL MUSEUM Streets 13 and 15 between Avenues Central and 2da (1870) | 29 BLUE CASTLE Central avenue, Street 17 (1914-1917) | 30 SCHOOL OUR LADY OF SION Central avenue between 19 Streets 17 and (1883-1887) |
| 31 NORTHEAST CORNER OF THE OLD SCHOOL OF RIGHT Avenues 6 and 8, Street 19 (1926) | 32 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE RAILROAD Avenue 3 between Streets 17 and 23 (1908) | 33 FERCORI (Vieja Aduana Principal) Streets 23 and 25 between Avenues 3 and 9 (1889) |
| 34 MUSEUM DR RAFAEL ANGEL CALDERON GUARD Street 25 between Avenues 11 and 13 (bis) (Beginnings 1920s) | 35 ASYLUM CARLOS MARIA ULLOA Street 23, Highway Nacional 108 (Aims of century 19) | 36 GRAMMAR SCHOOL OF COSTA RICA Streets 7 and 9 between Avenues 18 and 20 (1894) |
| 37 SCHOOL MAURO FERNANDEZ Avenue 8 between Streets 10 and 12 (1900-1909) | 38 OLD HOSPITAL SIQUIATRICO CHAPUI Stroll Columbus between Streets 14 and 20 (1890) | 39 MUSEUM OF COSTA RICAN ART Metropolitan park of the Savannah (1937) |
THE NACIONAL THEATER
Inaugurated the 19 of October of 1897, the inheritance of the National Theater is a drama within I know same. The impulse for its construction came from a big group of retailers and coffee growers, who asked for the government to construct a National Theater that reflected the image and the pride of the country. A tax of 20 cents by each 46 exported kilograms of coffee was sent a letter to the president of that then, Carlos Duran, requesting. The tax had to be eliminated at the end of the construction.
The planes for this wonder were created by architects Belgian and approved by the engineers of Costa Rica. The metallic structures for the construction were made in Belgium whereas the ornamentos and the furniture were concerned of Italy. Although much of the decoration was done by European, many of which they remained in Costa Rica, the majestic walls were constructed by children of Costa Rican marmoleros, the most lasting example of their abilities.
The interior of the National Theater is as impressive as the outside, with famous sculptures like the statues of Pietro Bulgarelli that crown the facade.
The paintings of Vulgi Bogmani adorn the elegant presidential theater box in the main audience. The interior impregnates neorenacentitas styles with a combination of crystal statures cadelabra and marble columns of Carrara. Most popular of paintings of the theater Vila is a colossal mural of J. who represents the production of the banana tree and the coffee. The audience of 1,024 seats is something worthy to see itself and where the best artists of the world arrive. Truely it is an architectonic feat and it is a reminder that the love by the culture is alive and in good state in Costa Rica.
THE NACIONAL MUSEUM
The year was 1948, Israel had become a nation. To the Capone he was occupied handling the streets of Chicago and the new government of Costa Rica abolished the army. The National Museum was once the intimidante Military Quarter Beautiful Vista, and now his proprietor is the University. Within his doors there is a center for the investigation and education that took those military lands and turned them magnificent gardens and the recreation of a colonial sugar mill.
Within the walls of the National Museum it is a responsibility keeping the archaeological treasures from the nation. From 1985, the museum has worked with the aid of UNESCO, particularly in the Project of Cultural Patrimony for Latin America. In 1986 jointly with the United Nations and other organizations of the government of Costa Rica, a study began to recover the complex. In 1989 to the front of the museum, inaugró the Seat of the Democracy, and in October of 1989 the museum and the Seat was the places selected for the celebration of the 100 aóos of democracy of Costa Rica.
New permanent exibiciones include the formation of the nation, its diverse habitats and ecological zones, and the first appearance of the man and his development in diverse atmospheres. Also the exibiciones can be seen that show the history of Costa Rica from the Spanish conquest. This it is, in fact, an historical site and the first center of the conservation of the country.
THE METALLIC BUILDING
This wonder of the architecture is located in San jOse, the capital of Costa Rica. It is mixed with the Morazan Park that is next to the Metallic Building, tending a bridge to the resistance between the nature and the wonderful creations of the man. The Metallic Building was made in transported Belgium in 1890 and to Costa Rica. It was mounted and finished in 1896. Today, such feat really would be of a prohibitive cost.
The architecture is representing of the period of the works with iron and the metal. Torre Eiffel in France, is an excellent example of this period. Although the construction is attributed to Eiffel commonly, history has demonstrated that he was not one of his works. It is of some interesting form when two nations combine their efforts to produce an architectonic piece. Designed by the architect Charles Thirio and prefabricated by Blacksmith shops of Aiseau in Belgium, the cost in that then was near the 340 thousand francs. Today that price would pay not even the load. The several segments of the building were sent from Amberes, Belgium to Port Lemon in Costa Rica where they arrived in 1892. When the assembled one was finished and the outer and inner additional structures were finished, they had passed four years, accumulating an additional cost of 225 thousand colons.
The government of Costa Rica to a great extent bought the building, influenced by the revolution of the period of the iron. The use of the structure was for two primary schools with capacity to lodge 800 students, combining to the boys in a section and the girls in another one. The facade of the building is adorned with a bust of Mimerva, having symbolized the “goddess of the wisdom”. To today, the Metallic Building yergue like a magnificent piece of architecture that evokes the pride and the historical feat that Costa Rica obtained when constructing it.
HEREDIA BUNKER
Located in the city of Heredia, this bunker in tower form, was constructed during the presidency of Tomas Guard and by its order. Constructed of rock and mortar done of “mortar of lime”, water and sand, it is resembled certain type of Caribbean constructions, like the one of some bunkers in Puerto Rico. Constructed before the cement arrived at the country, the bunker never was a tyranny symbol or military. In fact, his windows it seemed as if they were designed to accumulate bullets, instead of rejecting them.
