Cathedrals Old and New

After a cup of coffee atop Irazú, we made our way back down the mountain into the city of Cartago. First we visited the ruins of an old cathedral that had been destroyed by an earthquake in the nineteenth century. The ruins are also home to a creepy legend that states every foggy night in Cartago a priest can be seen wandering around the cathedral. He has been condemned to do so for eternity as punishment for having an affair with a local woman and then murdering her thereby defiling the church itself.

Afterwords we headed a few blocks down the a Byzantine style church known as Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles. This basilica is the site of the patron saint of Costa Rica known as La Negrita. As the story a goes a young girl found the a doll one day as she was collecting wood outside the city. She brought it back to her room and stored it away. The next day she was back out in the woods and found the another doll upon the exact same rock, so she took that back to her room to store it away with the other only to find the other had disappeared and that she was holding the exact same doll. She informed the local priest who also put aside the doll to look at it later, but when he went to do so it had disappeared and reappeared on the same rock once again. The priest took those to be a sign of divinity and a desire by the virgin to have a cathedral built on that location. However, the cathedral was not built on the site where the doll was first found until many years later after the destruction of the original cathderal. Many beleive that the destruction was a sign from the virgin to build the new cathedral at the current site. The doll as well as the rock upon which she was found remain with in the cathedral to this day. Year round Costa Ricans as well many other Catholics make pilgrimages to the sight to pray to La Negrita and receive her blessing and healing. Visitors walk along the central nave on their knees praying until they reach the alter where the doll is currently housed. The cathedral is home to countless charms that are supposed to represent individual miracles related to the healing of individuals. Witnessing the old and young as they demonstrated their faith in god, the church, and their patron saint by making their way down the aisle along their knees paired with the stories of healing and showings of gratitude via the charms made our visit to Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles a profound experience.

Afterwords we visited yet another cathedral this time in the river valley of Orosi. Also in ruins, the cathedral of Ujarrás is actually Costa Rica's oldest. We made this a short visit however in order to make it to lunch more quickly. We ate at buffet down by the beautiful lake located in the center of the valley. At this restaurant they made coffee using a sort of old style coffee maker. Where they poured hot water through a canvas sack filled with freshly ground beans, it was easily the best cup of coffee I have had here yet.

Finally, after lunch we came to our last stop of the day, which turned out to be another cathedral. This colonial cathedral, however, is still standing. Inside were paintings from Mexico, sculptures from Guatemala, and woodwork from Ecuador. The cathedral truly was representative of Hispanoamerican art as well as the age of Spanish imperialism and colonialism that brought Catholicism to the Americas. This past Saturday while busy, tiresome, and full of education proved to be an extremely rewarding experience.