From Zoo to National Park: Costa Rica’s Historic Green Space Gets a New Life

Some school days, back around 1982, instead of going to class I’d spend the entire day bouncing between the Costa Rican Museo Nacional, the Parque Zoológico Simón Bolívar, and the National Library. They were all within walking distance, halfway between my house and high school and just far enough away that my parents never found out. I don’t think they know to this day. Such a nerdy thing to do, right? But at the time, it felt like living dangerously.

A recent Instagram post by @historiadecostarica reminded me of the zoo’s poor lion. The Simón Bolívar Zoo closed for good last year, but for decades it housed lions – Kivú, Rodolfo, and before them the one I would see on my escapades and which name I can’t recall. Even as a teenager, I knew that lion wasn’t living its best life.

This week, I read in The Tico Times that the old zoo grounds will be transformed into Costa Rica’s first urban national park. The $8 million project will open its first sections by late 2026, with the full development unfolding over the next five years. Some of the original animal cages will be preserved and turned into exhibit spaces, honoring the site’s history since its opening in 1921.

For me, the news feels like things coming full circle. As a teenager, I wandered those paths in my own way, and now the space will officially welcome people to do just that – explore, reflect, and enjoy green space in the heart of San José. I can’t wait to return and walk those paths again. Maybe the name of that long-forgotten lion will come to me then.

Read more about the upcoming urban park here.

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