Travel #3: Cartago

The next day trip our group took was to the neighboring province of Cartago. First we stopped at the Colonial Church of Quircot, a 15th century Franciscan mission that is thought to be the oldest church in Costa Rica. Because it's Franciscan, it has architecture very similar to many mission-style churches in California. This building is notable because it is one of the few original mission-era buildings that has survived constant tectonic tremors, frequent earthquakes, and occasional floods over the years.

The main purpose of these missions was to convert the local populace to Catholicism. Obviously when the monks arrived everyone did not conveniently already speak Spanish, so for a few generations all evangelism was done through art. Art was used in paintings as well as in published texts. The stations of the Cross are framed around the entire chapel (pictures here), and the ancient Bibles are full of opulent illustrations. Note that in the paintings, Jesus and other important figures are depicted as very fair-skinned. This is less because of the popular claim that the Franciscans thought Jesus was of European heritage, and more because the white was used to indicate purity and vulnerability to God.

Another very interesting set of symbols is in the depiction of the Virgin of Guadalupe, who is one of the most revered religious figures in Catholicism. The exact image of the Virgin was targeted by the religious authorities of the time to appeal to the very prominent Aztec religion in Central America. The rays of sunlight emanating from all around her reach to the worship of the sun, the stars on her cloak to the worship of stars, and the blue of her cloak to the prominence of the color blue as a religious symbol (as red is often a symbol in Christianity for the blood of Christ).

While driving, we stopped at a scenic overlook to see some coffee plantations in a valley. Costa Rica has legislature now that forbids cutting down more jungle to make space for coffee plants—something that is now decimating forests in much of South America. The very finite supply is what makes Costa Rican coffee a bit more expensive. There are two types of methods for growing coffee that supposedly create a minute taste difference: shaded versus unshaded. For shade, people plant tall, thin trees among the coffee beans.

Unshaded coffee plants

Shaded coffee plants

Our last stop was the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels (la Basilica de Nuestra Senora de los Angeles), the largest basilica in Costa Rica. It has beautiful decor and architecture, but I felt so bad about disturbing worshipers that I left before I could take many pictures.

One of the traditions I unwittingly interrupted was people appealing to the Virgin. When they have an extra important problem, worshippers will walk down the main aisle of the church on their knees, praying about it. Sometimes people will walk much further than that on their knees as a pilgrimage. On August 2nd every year, thousands and thousands of people will make pilgrimages on their knees from their home to this church as a special holiday honoring the Virgin, some from outside Costa Rica. I don't know if this tradition takes place elsewhere too, but if the special request was granted, worshipers will bring a tiny silver charm (called exvotos) representing the nature of their problem and leave it as a gesture of thanks. Below the basilica is a large walkway with walls covered in these tiny silver arms, houses, etc.

One of the more interesting exvotos was left by a young man who fell from a tree and was stabbed by a stick on his way down, and in gratitude for his health he left that very stick.

Finally, there is also a holy spring next to the Basilica. During the holiday honoring the Virgin, thousands of people bring tiny bottles to save some of the holy water for themselves or to bring to family members. On a regular day, there were two dozen people at the spring (though some were just drinking from it). The legend behind the spring is that on August 2nd (the holiday) of 1635, a native girl named Juana Pereira was collecting firewood in the area that the Basilica now sits on and found a small doll-like statue on a large stone. Being a little girl, she took the doll home. The next day she returned to the same place, again for firewood, and saw another doll-like statue. She took it, too, and was amazed when she returned home when the doll from the day before was gone. This happened again the next day, and when she informed a priest he told her it was a miracle, that the nearby spring is therefore holy, and so they built a church there.