Escazú

About Escazú:

The district takes up the middle of the canton on the northeast slope of the Cerros de Escazú, nine kilometres west of central San José. San Rafael lies to the north, San Antonio to the south and Santa Ana canton to the west, and the average elevation is 1,101 metres. National routes 105, 167 and 177 cross it. Buses for the capital leave from the terminal on the north side of the Parque Central and run down through San Rafael to the Parque del Ministerio de Salud in central San José.

Escazú was a stopping place long before it was a town: the name comes from the indigenous word itzkazú, a place to rest, on the trail between Aserrí and Pacaca. Neighbours pledged a chapel in 1793, and on 2 March 1799 Bishop Antonio de la Huerta y Caso gave it the title of San Miguel Arcángel, on land that Julián Alfaro had traded for plots beside the río de la Cruz. The first building was badly damaged in 1800. The stone-block church that stands today on the northeast corner of the Parque Central, with its dome, bell tower, three naves and baroque altarpieces, was designed by the engineer Franz Kurtze. The village became a villa in 1824, the seat of a canton that in 1848 still took in Santa Ana, Mora and Puriscal, and a city in 1920.

Daily life in the centre turns on the park and the church. After Sunday Mass people fill the park on the west side of the church, with its stone benches, basketball and futsal courts and a bandstand that replaced the original 1923 kiosk. The Municipalidad de Escazú, the canton’s Red Cross base and an EBAIS clinic are all in the district, along with the Escuela República de Venezuela and the Colegio Nuestra Señora del Pilar. Hulera Costarricense, a rubber manufacturer founded in 1945, still runs its factory here, so this is a working town and not only a place to sleep. The nickname Ciudad de las Brujas comes from the canton’s witch legends, above all the tale of the Bruja Zárate, and the Brujas football club started here before moving to Desamparados in 2009.

In 2011 the district had 11,984 residents in some 3,900 homes, and close to one in five had been born abroad, mainly in Nicaragua, the United States and Colombia. Its barrios are Centro, Carrizal, El Poró, La Rosa Linda, Los Salitrillos, El Curío and part of Bello Horizonte. Around the church, older family houses, some in adobe with clay-tile roofs, share the blocks with small shops and offices. Buyers who want a view of the Central Valley and more land head up to Carrizal and Altos de Carrizal, while the malls and offices of San Rafael are a short drive north.

Houses in Escazú:

Two very different kinds of house share the district. In the grid around San Miguel you find older family houses on their own lots, a handful of them in adobe with thick walls and tile roofs, next to newer houses built on subdivided plots. Up in Carrizal, recent houses are stacked over three levels to work with the slope, with four bedrooms and around 300 m² of construction on lots of about 550 m². When you compare homes in San Miguel de Escazú, weigh a house near the church, where the terminal and the park are a walk away, against a view house on the hill that you will drive to every day.

Apartments in Escazú:

Most apartments for sale here are in gated condominiums rather than towers; the canton’s newer high-rises are mostly further north in San Rafael. In Condominio San Miguel, the larger units offer around 219 m² of living space with high-end finishes and shared green areas, a pool, a gym and a multipurpose room. The appeal is a big, secure flat within reach of the park and the buses, away from the mall corridor. Find out the monthly condominium fee and what it covers before you set the asking price against that of a house.

Rentals in Escazú:

The rental range runs from modest to high end within a few streets. In Altos de Carrizal, two-bedroom flats without a garage are let for a monthly sum in colones that includes water. Furnished one-bedroom apartments in the centre are let in dollars, some with everything included and pets accepted. Families looking for space will find four-bedroom view houses in the same upper area, also in dollars. If you will commute by bus, walk the climb from the terminal on the park before you sign.

Land and Lots in Escazú:

Building land here comes in two very different sizes. Near the centre, the occasional lot of around 500 m² comes up, one of them barely 200 metres from the San Miguel church. On the Carrizal road the plots run from about 5,000 m² to nearly 7,800 m², with mountain views and a look down over the centre, a few minutes’ drive up from the park. On those hillside parcels, measure the slope, the access and what the zoning allows that far up, and in the old grid remember that Escazú’s zoning treats the blocks around San Miguel as a heritage-interest zone. Ask the municipality for a land-use certificate before you make an offer on either kind.

FAQ:

• Is San Miguel de Escazú the same place as the district of Escazú?

  Yes. San Miguel is the parish name, and people use it for the district, whose official name is Escazú: district one of the canton, postal code 10201. Ads also say “Escazú” for anything in the canton, San Rafael and San Antonio included, so confirm on the cadastral plan which of the three districts a property is in.

• What should I check before buying an old adobe house near the church?

  Start with the heritage rules. The blocks around San Miguel are a heritage-interest zone in Escazú’s zoning, so ask the municipality what you may alter, demolish or add before you budget a renovation. Adobe walls also need a structural engineer’s opinion in a country this seismic, because thick earth walls can hide cracks and damp. Then pull the record from the Registro Nacional (Registro Inmobiliario) and compare area and boundaries with the cadastral plan.

• What should I look at on a large lot in Carrizal?

  Slope comes first: a view lot can lose a good part of its buildable area to the gradient and to any stream setbacks. Ask whoever supplies water on that stretch for availability in writing, drive the access road, and request the land-use certificate so you know how densely you may build that far up the hill.

• Can I live in Escazú centro without a car?

  In the grid around the park, largely yes. The municipality, the church, schools, the EBAIS clinic and the bus terminal for San José are close together, and buses run every day from just after five in the morning until ten at night. Carrizal and the upper barrios are another matter, because the streets climb hard.

• How will the works on Route 177 affect me?

  In May 2026 the municipality began a full rebuild of Route 177, which links Escazú with Alajuelita and includes a new bridge, announcing about eight months of closure to through traffic with regulated access for residents. If the property is on or near that road, ask how far the works have got and how visitors and deliveries reach the house in the meantime.