COSTA RICA GOLD MUSEUM

But, when you join the thousands of people walking past the Plaza or National Theatre every day, you won't see the Museo del Oro ("Oro" is gold in Spanish) anywhere though it's underfoot.

Literally---it's under the Plaza!

More than 500 years ago, the country we know today as Costa Rica was discovered, named by Christopher Columbus, and claimed for Spain.

"Discovered" is a sort of relative term since, as it turns out, people had been living on the land for probably 10,000-12,000 years when the Italian-born explorer first came ashore.

People inhabited the Costa Rica countryside for 70-90 centuries before the first Egyptian pyramid (c. 2,700 B.C.).

This enormous span of time encompasses evolving and changing cultures over millenia (times very approximate---and, of course, expect overlapping!!!):

----Stone spear heads (c. 10,000 B.C.)

----pottery and ceramics (unknown but likely prior to 1500 B.C.)

----jade (last centuries B.C.-700 A.D.)

----volcanic stone carvings (last centuries B.C.-1000 A.D)

----gold (c. 500-700 A.D. through 1500 (arrival of Spaniards))

Some has been lost to time, some plundered, some yet to be discovered.

But, some is preserved and available for viewing on your next Costa Rica vacation.

Info About Costa Rica Gold Museum

As an added bonus, your ticket will allow access to the Numismatic Museum in the same building.

This part of the museum houses about 5000 items showing the evolution of money in the country from 1502 (when Columbus "discovered" the country) to present.

Tel. (506) 2243 4202

Address: 5th street, Between Central and 2nd avenue, San Jose (beneath the Plaza of Culture)

Admission Fees: Nonresidents $11.00 (Foreign students with ID card $7.00)

Hours: 9:15 a.m.-5:00 p.m. (closed Costa Rica holidays)

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