Cartago, Costa Rica

Just inside the entrance of the church.

I’ve never seen this before, and I don’t understand why. People would go down on their knees and shuffle all the way to the altar. That’s a long distance, and it must be rough on the knees too!

Since I’ve learned not to always look in one direction, I looked up and wow was it nice.

There are even atriums to the church on both side, and I caught this man praying when I walked over.

Some more people shuffling all the way down….I was almost sitting on the floor of the pew just to get this shot.

To get this, I reached out into the middle of the aisle and put the camera on timer. It took me a couple tries to get the camera lined up perfectly with the center. I also can’t decide if I like it better in BW or in color, so I did a color version instead.

A church wouldn’t be complete without stained glass, and this was no different. Unfortunately for me, I could only get one nice picture.

Hallazgo means it was founded in 1635, but I don’t think it means it was built then. I think it was built in 1824, coronated in 1926 and repaired in 1950?

We left the church and went to the city center. I found out that in the middle of every city, there is a church and a park. Cartago is no different, except their church is in ruins. Acutally, I think it was being constructed but then an earthquake hit and they decided not to continue building it and left it as is.. if the wikipedia is correct and I saw the same church.

The day we were there, it was closed but on some days they open the gates and let people in.