Unlike the city of Cartago, the city of San José was never formally established. The foundation was for XVI century settlers a whole politic-religious ceremony involving a mass, where the city was given its name at a series of rituals performed to form the new city hall.The current capital, San Jose, had a more modest birth because it was originally just a point of crossing between the Aserrí valley and Barva.

During the 17th century, in Costa Rica there were only two really important towns: Cartago and Espíritu Santo de Esparza. However, many families had settled in regions such as Aserrí, Barva, Curridabá and Pacaca.

 

The dispersion of theses families prevented the political and religious authorities, located in Cartago, to have a majority control over the population. It was very difficult for them to raise taxes, promote agricultural work and in the case of the Church, to provide religious services.

La Boca del Monte

In 1736, the León de Nicaragua council ordered shrines built in the Valley of Aserrí. By doing this they were trying to congregate the many chapels scattered parishioners. It was decided to build a chapel on the site known as La Boca del Monte de Curridabá, because it was a central and easily accessible site to the habitants of Aserrí.

The priest, Juan Manuel de Casasola y Córdoba finished the chapel in 1738 and he dedicated it to the patriarch Saint Joseph (San Jose).  This chapel became the shrine that marked the birth place of San Jose.  Today, in its place we find the clothing store, Scaglietti, behind the Central Bank in downtown San Jose.

With the chapel finished, the Church commanded the Valley of Aserrí residents to build their homes around the temple in the Boca del Monte, but they refused because of the attachment they had to their lands and because the scarcity of water in the chapel area. The water problem was solved by the priest Juan de Pomar y Burgos in 1747 with an irrigation ditch that transferred water, most likely from the Torres river or from the Arias creek.

In 1755 the temple was neglected and with only a few houses around it. Because the water problem had been solved, the mayor of Cartago, Tomás López del Corral, forced the families of Aserrí to move "under penalty of one hundred pesos fine” for those who didn’t. He also threatened with corporal punishment, burning huts and exile. That was how the hermitage, after 18 years of neglect, finally had company.

 

 

Residents

 

To establish a town, it was required to move families from close indigenous centers, often against their will.

It was hard for them to get use to, because taking them away from their place of origin didn’t please them.

In this new community the residents were devotees of Patriarch St. Joseph, whose image paraded on March 19 each year.

San José

In the second half of the 18th century, the Boca del Monte settlement started to be known by their residents as "La Villita" o "Villa Nueva" until in 1801, the governor Tomás de Acosta officially called it “San José".

In 1776 the chapel had move to where today stands the Metropolitan Cathedral and held the rank of parish. In 1783 the parishioners numbered almost five thousand and they began to cultivate sugar cane, corn and wheat.

Because the efforts of the deputy and priest Florencio del Castillo, San José was named a municipality for the first time in 1812. The founding of the Casa de Enseñanza de Santo Tomás was one the biggest achievements of this council.

After independence from Spain, Costa Rica broke in two groups with opposing interests: the Cartaginians who wanted to join the empire of Iturbide in Mexico and the Alajuela joeboys with republican ideas.

In April 1823 Gregorio José Ramírez built a small army with the supporters of the Republic and confronted the Cartaginians in Alto del Ochomogo. When the Republicans won the clash, they broke the nexus with Iturbide and on May 16, 1823 they moved the capital of Costa Rica from Cartago to San José. During the government of Braulio Carrillo occured the “Guerra de la Liga” where San José became established as the capital city of Costa Rica after defeating the towns of Alajuela, Cartago and Heredia. On May 27, 1839 Carrillo decreed that San José "will always be the state capital ".

 

The development of the Canton

Even though the canton of San Jose became the most important city in the country, its infrastructure was very simple, with no outstanding buildings. The “air of being a city” began to be received during the Juan Rafael Mora Porras government (1849-1859) when the works were influenced by the modern architecture.  It was a time of economic boom because of the production and export of coffee.

In the second half of the 19th century, theaters, churches, banks, hotels and state buildings were being built. San José opened pipelines, street lighting, trams and a telegraph service. At the end of the century over 37 thousand people lived within the city.

At the beginning of the 20th century efforts were directed to public hygiene improvement. During the Cleto González Víquez government they laid sewer networks, pipelines were installed, and they changed outhouses for toilets.

 

Despite the global crisis in 1929, there were significant efforts to improve the roads and to pave streets. As years passed, the central districts started to be invaded by trade causing the emigration of neighbors.

Current situation

In later, decades San José was gradually became filled with large scale public and private buildings.  Located within San José are the three principal branches of the government, the major banks, hospitals, theaters and museums.  Furthermore, it became the most populated canton of the country.

As in the beginning, San José is used today by many people as a crossing point:  more than a million people pass through the Capital from Monday to Friday to go to work and a fleet of 500 thousand cars enter the city daily.

During the decade 1990-2000, the Municipality developed a series of jobs aimed to improve the quality of urban life. For this reason, among others, the Municipality has being building boulevards, while many parks and squares are being remodeled.  Certain roads have being expanded and paved to boost efforts to combat pollution, crime and poverty. Today San José is a pioneer in the development of an Urban plan for the well being of Costa Rica.

Taken and adapted from http://www.msj.go.cr/gob_ciudad/hist_canton.html