Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
colonial era, served as the provincial capital. Villanueva de la Boca del Monte del Valle de
Abra - as San José was first known - was not founded until 1737, when the Catholic
Church issued an edict that forced the populace to settle near churches (attendance was
down).
The city remained a backwater for decades, though it did experience some growth as a
stop in the tobacco trading route during the late 18th century. Following independence in
1821, rival factions in Cartago and San José each attempted to assert regional supremacy.
The struggle ended in 1823 when the two sides faced off at the Battle of Ochomongo. San
José emerged the victor and subsequently declared itself capital.
Despite its new status, the city remained a quiet agricultural center into the 20th century.
The calm was shattered in the 1940s, when parts of San José served as a battlefield in the
civil war of 1948, one of the bloodiest conflicts in the country's history. Out of that clash,
José Figueres Ferrer of the Partido de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Party)
emerged as the country's interim leader - signing a declaration that abolished the army at
the armory that now serves as the Museo Nacional.
The rest of the 20th century would see the expansion of the city from diminutive coffee-
trading outpost to sprawling urban center. In the 1940s San José had only 70,000 residents.
Today, the greater metro population stands at almost 1.6 million. Recent years have been
marked by massive urban migration as Ticos (Costa Ricans) and, increasingly, Nicara-
guans have moved to the capital in search of economic opportunity. As part of this,
shantytowns have mushroomed on the outskirts, and crime is increasingly becoming a part
of life for the city's poorest inhabitants.
The city remains a vital economic and arts hub, home to important banks, museums and
universities - as well as the everyday outposts of culture: live-music spaces, art centers,
bookstores and the corner restaurants where
josefinos
(people from San José) gather to
chew over ideas.
