Museum of Costa Rican Art — Attraction in Mata Redonda

We stayed at a hotel for one night a few blocks away and decided to stop in. Admission is free and the museum itself is not very large so can be walked in its entirety in less than an hour. Most of the signage is in Spanish only. we went in the afternoon on a weekday and it was not very busy. We spent about 15 minutes in the sculpture garden out back, where there are a handful of large sculptures and statues. The building used to be the international airport and has really nice stone and woodwork throughout. There are several exhibition rooms on the ground floor and we saw an exhibit by the artist Adrian Arguedas Ruano. The wall-to-wall relief wood carving in the Golden room upstairs was really beautiful too, representing the different historical periods in Costa...

We went there in September 2025. First, this is not meant to discredit the Costa Rican Art Museum.

We appreciated it because it has several positive sides: The building is beautiful and well maintained. The staffs were friendly and respectful. Free entrance. The statues and comic collections were okay.

The bad rating was due to the paintings collection in the ground floor. Almost all except a few, were depressive and dark, several involved blood or naked body scene, so I would not recommend that art museum for families with kids in general.

It is not the kind of art museums with beautiful paintings like I have expected, when seeing the museum has more...

I recommend visiting this place when in San Jose. It is a lovely building. The former airport. A varied selection of art. Currently an exhibition of Flora Saenz Longlois, which is worth seeing. Also, go upstairs to see the gold room, which shows the history of Costa Rica. It is quite stunning. It's embossed or 3D plasterwork coated in gold leaf, perhaps. Difficult to describe. Outside the building is more artwork. This museum is also free, which is welcome as we have found it expensive to visit CR. After your visit, you can walk around La...