BAs Cartago’s most important site, and Costa Rica’s most venerated religious shrine, this basilica displays Byzantine grace, with fine stained-glass windows, hand-painted interiors and ornate side chapels featuring carved-wood altars. Dating from 1912, the structure retains an unharmed central relic: La Negrita (the Black Virgin), a small representation of the Virgin Mary, that was found on this spot on August 2, 1635.

If you happen to be in Costa Rica the last week of July to the 2nd of August, you can observe the impressive annual pilgrimage to the Basilica …