Pre-Columbian Gold Museum
Sixteen hundred pieces of gold worked before the Spanish arrived, beneath the Plaza de la Cultura.
Duration
1 hr 30 min – 2 hrs
Best time
In the morning
Open
Every day
Entry price
8400 CRC
The museum is entirely underground, on three levels beneath the Plaza de la Cultura: the collection belongs to the central bank, and the building was conceived as a vault. You go down, not up.
It holds around one thousand six hundred pieces of pre-Columbian goldwork, made by lost-wax casting between AD 500 and 1500. Many represent animals — frogs, eagles, cats — and served as rank insignia, worn on the chest. A pottery room and a numismatic room complete the visit.
Getting there
Under the Plaza de la Cultura; the entrance is at the corner of Calle 5 and Avenida Central. Next to the Teatro Nacional.
Hours
9.15am – 5pm, every day
What the price covers
general foreign visitor entry: the pre-Columbian gold museum, the numismatic museum and the temporary exhibitions. 6,300 ₡ for a foreign student, free under 12.
Rules on site
Bags and large items must go to the cloakroom, with a security check at the door. Flash photography is banned in the gold room.
Checked on 30 August 2026 at Central Bank of Costa Rica Museums — ticketing
Other places in San José
Poás VolcanoAn active crater a kilometre and a half wide, seen from a lookout fifty minutes' drive away.
- National TheatreAn Italian-style opera house built with coffee money, in the middle of the capital.
- Mercado CentralCovered aisles since 1880, sodas — the local canteens — and the country's best coffee at the counter.
La Paz Waterfall GardensFive falls in succession on the volcano road, in cloud forest.