Costa Rica » San Jose

San Jose  is the capital and largest city of the nation of Costa Rica. It is also the capital of the San Jose Province. San Jose is located in the center of the country at 9°56'N 84°5'W; it is on a mountain plateau at an elevation of about 1,170 meters (3,839 feet) above sea level.

According to the 2000 census, the city had a population of 309,672 people in San Jose Canton: the latter half of the 20th century was a period of rapid growth for the city, considering that in 1950 its population was a mere 86,900. The metropolitan area of San Jose exceeds the canton limits and surpasses one million inhabitants.

San Jose was a small village of little significance until 1824. In that year, Costa Rica's first elected head of state, liberal Juan Mora Fern¡ndez, decided to move the government of Costa Rica from the old Spanish colonial capital of Cartago and make a fresh start with a new city. This was a time of much optimism in the newly independent nation of Central America, of which Costa Rica was at that time a state .The new capital of San Jose grew rapidly, extending into the Central Valley. Because of its late 18th century origin, San Jose has little of the Spanish colonial architecture common in most other Latin American capitals.

The University of Costa Rica was established here in 1843, in that time with the name of "University of Santo Tom¡s". San Jose also serves as the headquarters of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The city is served by Juan Santamaría International Airport, 23 km west of downtown, near Alajuela.