The National Arts and Crafts Market or Artisan’s Market in downtown San Jose has been for decades a popular stop for nationals and foreigners looking for high-quality, affordable souvenirs along with Costa Rican handcrafted products.

This Market used to be located in a very old building on Calle 13 (Street 13) in San Jose, which was finally demolished this past Saturday by the San Jose Municipality after the work to move all the artisans to the new building, located behind the main building of the Social Security Service, also in San Jose, was finished.

In total, 80 of the 88 artisans that were in the old market chose to relocate to the new building.

 

“There’s 80, we are only missing 8 and we have the hope that at the end all of them will choose to come, there is no reason for them not to; in reality, the Municipality has remodeled the infrastructure and we are open to make the necessary adjustments so everyone has their spot as it corresponds”, commented Johnny Araya, Major of San Jose.

The move was not easy, after years of negotiation and conflict, still on Friday more than 20 artisans were showing their disagreement with the measure. However, the new building offers them more space, adequate bathrooms and in the near future the municipality will build a food court area and banking services.

“Today we have accomplished many things, first to give the artisans a decent place to work in, as they deserve, and second to give the city back the 13th street, and give San Jose the market it needed”, added Araya.

The New National Arts and Crafts Market officially opened to the public this Monday, March 19th and the San Jose Municipality hopes that it will attract more tourists. The building had a cost of almost $2 million.