|
|
|
Cartago - History |
|
|
The
city of Cartago was first established in 1563 by the Spanish conquistador
Juan Vasquez de Coronado. The original village was situated between the
Coris and Purires Rivers, several kilometres to the southwest of the
present day city. This location proved to be poorly chosen, however, since
the settlement was flooded so often that it came to be known as the
"City of Mud," and in 1572 was transferred to another site
closer to what is now San Josè. About
two years later, the population was again transferred back to the current
site of the city of Cartago, which remained the capital of the province of
Costa Rica throughout the colonial period. In 1823, two years after
independence from Spain, the country's governmental seat was moved to San
Josè and Cartago was left to develop as a provincial capital of the new
republic. When
Vasquez de Coronado first explored the eastern end of the Central Valley,
he found an area populated by numerous indigenous groups, and thus the
Spaniards set about the mission of christianising the native peoples. The
first church built in Costa Rica was constructed during the 1560's in the
Valley of Ujarras near the Reventazon River. The settlement was
eventually abandoned, however, due to recurring floods and episodes of
pestilence. The ruins of the church are still visible on the site and have
been declared a national monument.
A gruesome photo of the Cartago cemetery after the devastating 1910 earthquake. The men are carrying away corpses and bones that were unearthed because of the quake. The cloths wrapped around the faces help to stand the stench. On the right two men are showing a coffin that was destroyed, while a skeleton is removed on a primitive stretcher on the left. Three blocks to the east of the parish ruins stands the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels, an impressive Byzantine style church which is the national religious shrine of Costa Rica. Every year thousands of devotees from across the country make a pilgrimage on foot to honour the Virgin Mary and to render homage for favours conceded. This pilgrimage coincides with the feast day of the Virgin of the Angels held on August 2nd to commemorate the miraculous appearance (and subsequent reappearance) of a small carved image of the virgin mother to a young native girl in 1635. The church was erected on the actual site and the rock on which the statue appeared can be seen in a crypt entered from the left-hand side of the church's altar. |
|
|
|
|
|
© Copyright 2000 - 2004 AMERICAtravelling.net POWERED BY wORLDTRAVELGATE.NET |
|
The
fate of the church in the Cartago parish has not been much better.
Construction began in 1574, but between then and 1910 the building had to
be re
