Plaza Cleto González Víquez, Urban park in downtown San José, Costa Rica.
Plaza Cleto González Víquez is an urban sports park in central San José with multiple training facilities. It offers a swimming pool, soccer fields, athletics and gymnastics areas, along with specialized spaces for boxing and volleyball instruction.
The land was sold by Santiago Güell and first held a plaza called Colección, later split by the Camino Real to Desamparados and by the railway linking the Pacific and Atlantic terminals. During Cleto González Víquez's first term (1906–1910) the government bought and donated the ground for sport, and the plaza was officially inaugurated on 18 December 1925; a stone monument to him was erected in 1966.
The plaza's name honours Cleto González Víquez, who kicked off the inaugural match here on 18 December 1925, when CS La Libertad beat CS Herediano 2-1. Until 1969 it hosted the year-end civic fairs, with bullfights and mechanical rides, before they moved to Zapote. Today the railway line still splits the grounds, and the metro station makes it a reference point for the southern barrios.
The railway line linking the Pacific and Atlantic terminals still crosses the plaza, dividing it into two sections, so plan your visit around the crossing. The grounds converge with several busy streets and avenues, and the metropolitan train station on the southern side is one of the capital's main stops. The Cantonal Sports Committee of the San José Municipality maintains and administers the facilities.
The railway line linking the Pacific and Atlantic terminals still cuts the plaza into two sections, a division inherited from the diagonal path to Desamparados that crossed the land in its early years. The station on this line is one of the busiest in the southern part of the capital.
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