The story
Welcome to the lush transition where the upscale neighborhood of Rohrmoser meets the expansive greenery of Parque La Sabana. As you stand here, surrounded by the modern glass towers and quiet residential streets of Rohrmoser, you are at the gateway to what Josefinos call the city’s green lung. But if we could peel back the layers of time to the 1940s, you wouldn’t be hearing the sound of joggers or the wind in the trees; you’d be hearing the roar of propellers.
For decades, this entire park was the San José International Airport. Imagine huge Pan Am Clippers gliding over these very streets to touch down on a runway that stretched through the center of the park. Where families now picnic and athletes train for marathons, world travelers once stepped off silver planes into the tropical sun.
Look toward the eastern edge of the park, and you will see a beautiful white building with elegant arches and a red-tiled roof. This is the Museum of Costa Rican Art, but its history is written in its bones. This was the original airport terminal.
Its Neocolonial architecture was designed to be the first thing visitors saw when arriving in the country. If you step inside, head to the second floor to find the Salón Dorado, or Golden Room. Once the airport’s diplomatic lounge, its walls are covered in a breathtaking bronze-on-stucco relief that depicts the history of Costa Rica from pre-Columbian times to the mid-20th century.
It is a masterpiece of storytelling hidden inside a former transit hub. In the 1970s, as planes grew too large for this urban strip, the airport moved to Alajuela, and La Sabana was reborn. It was a massive ecological undertaking to transform a paved airfield into a forest.
Today, it hosts the National Stadium, a striking modern landmark gifted by China that looks like a giant silver shell nestled in the trees. As you walk from the museum back toward the shaded boulevards of Rohrmoser, notice how the city’s energy changes. Rohrmoser is home to many of the city’s embassies and coffee shops, but it owes its prestige to this park.
For the people of San José, this isn’t just a place to exercise; it’s a symbol of the country’s ability to repurpose the mechanical for the natural. From the tarmac to the trees, and from the terminal to the gallery, you are walking through a living history of Costa Rican progress. Take a moment to enjoy the breeze, and imagine the ghosts of those old silver planes flying high above the canopy.