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San José

Capital of Costa RicaSan José lies in the Central Valley in the middle of Costa Rica, about 1,030 m above sea level and inland from both the Caribbean and the Pacific coasts.

Why it's the capital

San José was founded in 1736 around a chapel and grew rich from tobacco plantations. Cartago was the first capital, but after independence it wanted to join Iturbide's Mexican Empire while San José wanted a republic, so in 1823 the republican leader Gregorio José Ramírez moved the capital to San José.

Fun facts

  1. The city is named after Joseph of Nazareth, and locals call it Chepe, a nickname similar to Joe in English.
  2. The National Theatre was paid for with a tax on coffee exports and opened in 1897 with a performance of Faust.
  3. A painting inside the theatre, Allegory of Coffee and Bananas by the Italian artist Aleardo Villa, is shown on the five-colón banknote.

Finding it on the globe

Costa Rica sits between Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the southeast. Tap the middle of the country, inland and away from both coasts.

Sources: Wikipedia: San José, Costa Rica, Wikipedia: Cartago, Costa Rica, Wikipedia: National Theatre of Costa Rica, Wikipedia: Costa Rica