Destination´s Overview
Sarchí is a town of people who love their job. In Costa Rica we are known as the cradle of handicrafts.
Walking through the streets of Sarchí means experiencing the authenticity of Costa Rican rural life decorated with thousands colors. Our picturesque town of friendly people, protects Costa Rican traditions that come from love of art and agricultural work. Here is where they began decorating the ox cart that was used to transport delicious coffee beans. The outcome was so beautiful that UNESCO declared it Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In the Central Park, in front of the Church, you can see “The largest ox cart in the world” that displays this tradition.
In Sarchí, we like to create with our hands, we enjoy the smell of wood and we are inspired by nature. There are over 200 workshops and artisan factories in town that dedicate their time and care to the manufacture of each product, therefore, the quality of our work has been recognized internationally.
In addition, we are a sustainable destination. This means that the resources we obtain through tourism are reinvested in town development and in conservation of natural resources that surround us: lush mountainous landscapes, with countless multicolored rivers and waterfalls that supply us with clean water and delight us with their beauty.
Visit Sarchí, where nature meets art.
History
In 1835, the lands that nowadays are part of the Valverde Vega canton were assigned to thirty farming families from Alajuela, Heredia and Cartago. According to the National Archives of Costa Rica, the districts of Sarchí Norte and Sarchí Sur initially formed one of the five neighborhoods with which Poás city was founded in 1782.
In the 1940s, Sarchí belonged to Grecia canton, but the population, which had reached 6000 inhabitants, stood up to be named as an independent canton. This was granted in 1949, when the Valverde Vega canton was created through a plebiscite. The name was given in honor of Dr. Carlos Luis Valverde Vega, who fought for the welfare of the population of the region. On the other hand, the name Sarchí, has its origins in the indigenous group Botos, which belonged to the western Huetar Kingdom tribes, who called these lands “Sarxhí”, which means “open field” in Huetar language.
The canton developed mainly due to coffee growing. It is believed that the first plantations in the area started in 1860 in “La Eva” and “La Luisa” homesteads (now owned by the Peters family), which are surrounded by thousand hectares of farmland.
Coffee activity and farmland concentration in a few hands promoted furniture and machinery production in Sarchí. The National Archives point out that, in 1872, the machinery invention to “benefit coffee” was created by a Sarchiceño and was exported to several countries by English entrepreneurs.
It was also in this agricultural context that the painted ox cart emerged. There are several hypotheses about its origin, one is that it was Mr. Isidro Chaverri who created it. Another suggests that this invention occurred before 1900 when Mr. Fructuoso Barrantes wife, who was an ox carts manufacturer, began to decorate them. Another source suggests that its origin comes from the mischief of a child, who painted a wind rose in one of Felipe Arias’ ox cart, this man was a modest farmer who made ox carts by hand in his house; allegedly, Arias liked the result and continued painting them in the same way.
Although its origin is doubtful, it is clear that it was in “La Eva” workshops where the tradition of decorating ox carts acquired a greater development. Between 1900 and 1903, Daniel Alfaro designed the modern and improved ox cart, including a wheel of 16 wooden wedges that is still used today. Around 1890 and 1910 Mr. Daniel Alfaro also created the well-known Sarchí chair in “La Eva” workshops.
The emergence and specialization of this handcrafted work opened the possibility of a new source of income for people who wanted to become independent from the big farms and work on their own. This is how Sarchí became the cradle of craft-work in Costa Rica and a national and international tourist destination, all as a result of the quality and design of its furniture. In Sarchí Norte and Sur the main population centers were developed and both services and economic activities can be found, including trade. Currently, there are over 400 stores and small factories in Sarchí that function as family businesses working with wood and other materials.
In 2008, the traditional ox cart was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO, represented with an ox cart decorated according to Sarchí tradition. Moreover, the designs that traditionally embelish the ox cart have been used on numerous occasions by both private and public enterprises to identify Costa Rica as a rural ecotourism destination, for example in the Matroska assigned to the country in the 2018 World Cup.
Geographical distribution
The city of Sarchí, located in Sarchí Norte District, is the head of the Valverde Vega Canton in Alajuela Province. It is located 27 kilometers northwest of the center of Alajuela Province, and 46 kilometers from San José.
This town is the only urban portion of Valverde Vega. The rest of the territory around Sarchí is rural, mountainous and sparsely populated.
