Purabá is a district of the Santa Bárbara canton, in the Heredia province of Costa Rica.

[1][2] The district consists of several large neighborhoods: San Bosco (Bosconia), Marías, Purabá, Lajas, and Calle Quirós.

[2] Like the rest of the canton, the area now known as Villa Jesús was originally occupied before the Spanish settlers came by the Huetares, an indigenous tribe.

[5] Recalling her childhood of making dolls out of plantain leaves in Purabá, former teacher María Cecilia Alfaro Víquez, born in 1940, said that the roads were made of pebbles and dirt.

[6] The culture and economy of sugarcane production was so widespread that even children like Alfaro Víquez made toy sugar mills.

[8] Up until 1975, Ingenio Agroindustrial Las Marías was a buyer of agricultural products for domestic consumption, but it moved to Grecia in 1975.

[14] Purabá's real estate holdings, private, public, and ecclesiastic, are assessed according to national law.

[14] An EBAIS, Equipo Básico de Atención Integral en Salud (Basic Medical Care Center), is located in the San Bosco neighborhood, serving residents and non-residents of the district.