Heredia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heredia, a city in north-central Costa Rica, the capital of Heredia Province.
It is located at , at an elevation of 1,140 metres (approx. 3,730 ft) above sea level. In 2004 it had a population of some 42,600 people.
The city was founded in the 1570s as Cubujuquí. It later changed its name to Villavieja before adopting its current name in 1763. For a brief period in the 1830s, Heredia served as the national capital.
Heredia is a sister city of Marietta, Georgia in the United States. Heredia also is home to one of Costa Ricas largest colleges, the National University of Costa Rica, that accepts a lot of international students.
Heredia is known as "La ciudad de las flores", mistranslated as "the city of flowers". The real meaning derived from some pretty girls whose last name was Flores and thus Heredia became known as "The city of the Flores girls".
Also, "Heredianos", as its citizens are known, are nationally known as the ones who "walk in the middle of the street". No historic reference has been found to this matter, although the state of their sidewalks/pavements is a very good reason why it's safer to rather walk on the street.
Heredia is also where a group of youths once known simply as "home" were born and got together in their teens (and early twenties) and decided to use the small city streets, walls and public property as their canvas for their artistic outlets, be it recreational skating, comic book publishing, fanzine creation, music performances (with the following groups attached to "home studios": botas de hule, complot, sirope, cuarto oscuro), collaboration with magazines (of which the most famous article is by proxy at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame) or simply killing time at the now mythical and inaccessible "Omar's Corner" . "home" has nowadays evolved into "El Bunker", "Los Aliados", "Home Photo and Design" and "Home Totaldominion".
