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Typical cart (oxcart, symbol of the work)

The cart was decreed National Symbol, in March 22 of 1988, by means of Decree no. 18197-C, published in Newspaper no. 131, in July 11 of 1988 during presidency of Dr. Oscar Arias Sánchez.

It symbolizes the culture, of the peace and the work of the Costa Rican people, in other words, humility, the patience, the sacrifice, and the certainty in the desire to reach the drawn up objectives.

Its history goes back about the middle of the XIX century, at the height of the coffee boom and before the construction of the Atlantic Railroad; oxcarts were used to transport coffee beans to Puntarenas, on the Pacific coast.

In the rainy season, the oxcart trail became a quagmire. Costa Rica thus forged her own spokeless wheel a hybrid between the Aztec disc and the Spanish spoked wheel to cut through the mud without becoming bogged down.

Its use is not exclusive of Costa Rica, because is used in all Central America. However, the Costa Rica cart is the unique one that decorates itself with geometric figures, flowers and animals. In fact, although the decorations have evident similarities, there are not two carts painted exactly equal, since the details and the arrangement of the drawings can vary.

Nowadays, because it does not have utility in the field workings, it has gotten to be an artisan object, as much that in Costa Rica, there are factories located in Sarchí, the province of Alajuela that dedicate to the construction and sale of artisan carts.

The Ox-cart Museum, in Salitral of Desamparados, on the southern outskirts of San José, has displays of countryman life, including a collection of hand painted oxcarts, in a typical old adobe house. Also, the Pueblo Antigua, outside San José, has a living museum featuring the carts.

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