MUSEUMS

National Museum

Costa Rica´s National Museum is located inside the striking, bullet-scarred Bellavista Fortress (built in 1870) in the middle of San José. The bullet holes on the south side of the imposing gray-brown fortress are a memoir of the Costa Rican Civil War that took place in 1948. The museum is structured around a beautifully landscaped courtyard featuring colonial-era cannons and that offers a birds’s eye-view of the city. The museum hosts a large collection of pre-Columbian art (including pottery, stone and gold) as well as an assorted mix of colonial-era art, furniture, costumes and documents. You’ll find separate exhibition halls dedicated to history, archaeology, geology, religion and colonial life. The museum is also one of the country's most active research facilities as well as one of the most proactive institutions when it comes to educational programs. The National Museum is one of those places that have ‘a little bit of everything’. It is especially famous when it comes to Costa Rica's indigenous heritage and environmental exhibits.

www.museocostarica.go.cr