Teatro Nacional is the jewel in Costa Rica’s architectural crown. It owes its origins to a fit of local pique when operatic prima donna Adelina Patti bypassed Costa Rica during a Central American tour in 1890.

The ruling clique promptly voted a tax on coffee exports to pay for the construction of a theatre in the style of the Paris Opera House, sumptuous enough to tempt the Paris Opera to perform Faust at the inauguration in October 1897.

Statues of the Muses of Dance, Music, and Fame decorate the Renaissance façade. Beyond the pink marble foyer, the Intermezzo has a colourful mural of an idyllic coffee harvest, while in the lavish triple-tiered auditorium naked deities prance across the ceiling.