For some three hundred years Cartago served as the capital city of Costa Rica. The honor dates back more than four hundred years to 1561 when Spanish settlers moved inland from the hot, tropical coastal areas of Costa Rica, looking for fertile farm land and to escape from the pirates visited Costa Rica's coastal cities. They found what they were looking for on the high central plateauxs of what are now Cartago and San Jose provinces. Here were cooler temperatures, lots and lots of cheap (i.e., free) land, soil made rich by the effluence of volcanoes and, best of all, no pirates. The settlers' efforts bore fruit. The upland provinces developed into what are now the wealthiest and most populous areas of Costa Rica.

The eighteenth century found the city settled finally in its current location. Now, instead of pirates, they got earthquakes which rattled the city flat in 1823 and again in 1910.

Today's Cartago is a modern city of shopping centers and innovative architecture, located about forty five minutes by bus from the capital.

The most remarkable touristical point in Cartago is Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles, named for the Patron Saint of Costa Rica, is constructed on the site of a miracle. On August 2, 1635, the Virgin showed herself as a doll made of stone to a poor girl named Juana Pereira. The girl took the doll home to play with, but the doll disappeared, then reappeared at the spot where she had first seen it. This was viewed as a sign that the Virgin wanted a church built here, and so it was. There is a spring in the back part of the cathedral. The water from here is believed to have healing properties. Every August second, Costa Ricans ask the Virgin for special favors, many of them walking or even crawling on hands and knees from their home towns to the cathedral to present their petitions, hoping these sacrifices will be noticed and their requests granted.

Cartago's central park and the Cartagan ruins of the Church of La Parroquia. The church was built in 1575, damaged by many earthquakes and rebuilt many times by Cartagineses. The whopper quake of 1910 finally leveled the structures, so today only the walls still stand, overgrown inside by a profusion of lovely tropical plants and flowers.

The Irazu Volcano, Butterfly Garden, Orosi Valley with its Colonial Church (The oldest one in Costa Rica) and others is part of the wonderful places that Cartago has to offer you.