The nations of Greece and Costa Rica, which share the same year of independence in 1821, have another unexpected link: the Latin American country is home to three towns with Greek names.
Grecia, which means “Greece” in Spanish, at the foothills of the Cordillera Central on the eastern edge of the Central Valley, is the capital of the canton by the same name in the province of Alajuela. Though the town is not inhabited by Greeks, its architectural elements are reminiscent of Greece. At the exit of Pan America Avenue, right before you enter the city, there is a collection of Corinthian columns.
Downtown, behind City Hall, there is a square called Plaza Hellenica, where one can find a bust of Aristotle, offered to the city by the Greek Ministry of Culture in 1997. And as if that weren’t enough, at the entrance to the town, there is an inscription which reads, “Welcome to Greece” and a miniature of the famous Greek Parthenon.
Grecia, Costa Rica has a population of 15,457 and is located at an altitude of 999 meters (about 3,278 feet) above sea level in the foothills of Central Cordillera. It is on the eastern end of the Valle Central, 45 kilometers (30 miles) from San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.
The town was officially founded on April 27, 1838 and was declared a city on August 6, 1903. There are three versions as to why it was named after Greece. The first theory is that the prefect of the region, and later the president of the country, José Rafael de Gallegos Alvarado, a known philhellene, was so influenced by the Greek Revolution that he decided to name the town Grecia.
According to the second theory, residents of the area convened in 1826 to decide on the name. During their meeting, one of the residents, Juan Lara Zamora, suggested that the area be named Grecia in honor of the European country which had gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821, to symbolize a new beginning for the city’s residents.
The third theory is related to the second and states that Juan Lara Zamora owned a farm called Grecia, which was very well-known, in the area. The main attraction of Grecia is a church called Iglesia de la Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, constructed entirely of prefabricated steel plates in an unusual deep red color. An urban legend has it that the church was a gift from a foreign country to Greece but accidentally ended up in the city of Grecia due to the similarity of the names.
The town is now a major tourist destination due to a permanent exhibition known as the “World of Snakes,” which presents fifty species of reptiles from around the world.
Atenas and Sparta in Costa Rica
However, Grecia is not the only place in Costa Rica that evokes Greece. There is also a town called Atenas (Athens), home to around eight thousand inhabitants. According to local legend, the Greek-inspired name was given by the philhellene José Rafael de Gallegos Alvarado, though little concrete information exists to confirm this.
Finally, Esparza is another Costa Rican town with Greek origins. When it was founded in 1851, it was originally named Sparta. Over time, the Spanish pronunciation led to the name being adapted to its current form.
