SAN JOSE, the capital of Costa Rica, Central America, stands 3900 feet above the sea, in a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains, on the west side of the main range about 15 miles north-west of Cartago (the ancient capital), with which it is connected by a railway (1884). Since 1870 the cathedral has been restored, a handsome marketplace with offices for the municipality erected, the barracks rebuilt and fortified, and several of the streets macadamized. San Jose is the seat of the national bank (founded in 1873) and of a university, to which a medical school and a museum are attached. The population is estimated at from 20,000 to 25,000. As a city it dates from the latter half of the 18th century ; it became the capital after the destruction of Cartago by earthquake in 1841.