Museo Nacional de Costa Rica

The Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, founded in 1887, is the oldest national museum in Central America. Located in the historic Cuartel Bella Vista fortress in San José — the site of the symbolic abolition of the Costa Rican army by President José Figueres Ferrer on 1 December 1948 — the museum's walls still bear bullet holes from that year's civil war. Its collections cover natural history, archaeology, colonial history, and numismatics, with outstanding holdings of pre-Columbian artefacts including gold objects, jade, ceramics, and the mysterious stone spheres of the Diquís culture, a UNESCO World Heritage-listed phenomenon. The museum is one of the most visited cultural institutions in Costa Rica.