Monumento a Juan Santamaría

Standing in a park in Alajuela near the Costa Rican capital, this monument honors Juan Santamaría, the young drummer boy who became a national hero during the 1856 campaign against the filibuster William Walker. According to tradition he volunteered to set fire to a stronghold held by Walker's men at the Battle of Rivas, succeeding at the cost of his life. The bronze statue shows him charging forward with a torch. Erected in 1891, it celebrates a humble laborer raised to a symbol of patriotism, honored each April on a national holiday.