Santa Clara (;

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

for " Saint Clare") is a city in

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in the Bay Area. Located in the southern

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

, the city was founded by the Spanish in 1777 with the establishment of

Mission Santa Clara de Asís Mission Santa Clara de Asís ( es, Misión Santa Clara de Asís) is a Spanish mission in the city of Santa Clara, California. The mission, which was the eighth in California, was founded on January 12, 1777, by the Franciscan order. Named for ...

under the leadership of

Junípero Serra Junípero Serra y Ferrer (; ; ca, Juníper Serra i Ferrer; November 24, 1713August 28, 1784) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Order. He is credited with establishing the Franciscan Missions in the Sierr ...

. Santa Clara is located in the center of

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Cou ...

and is home to the headquarters of companies such as

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...

Advanced Micro Devices Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufact ...

, and

Nvidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

. It is also home to

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mis ...

, the oldest university in California, and

Levi's Stadium Levi's Stadium is an American football stadium located in Santa Clara, California, just outside San Jose in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has served as the home venue for the National Football League (NFL)'s San Francisco 49ers since 201 ...

, the home of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's Nationa ...

, and

Cedar Fair Cedar Fair, L.P., formally Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, is a publicly traded master limited partnership headquartered at its Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates eleven amusement parks, nine included- ...

California's Great America California's Great America, often shortened to Great America, is a amusement park located in Santa Clara, California. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, it originally opened in 1976 as one of two parks built by the Marriott Corporation. Califor ...

Park. Santa Clara is bordered by San Jose on all sides, except for

Sunnyvale Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the nort ...

and

Cupertino Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57,82 ...

to the west.

History

Mission Santa Clara de Asís (1849; oil on canvas)

Battle_of_Santa_Clara,_California_(cropped)

The Tamien tribe of the

Ohlone The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the ...

nation of

Indigenous Californian The indigenous peoples of California (known as Native Californians) are the indigenous inhabitants who have lived or currently live in the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and after the arrival of Europeans. ...

s have inhabited the area for thousands of years.

Spanish period

The first European to visit the valley was

José Francisco Ortega José Francisco Ortega (1734 – February 1798) was an indigenous Californio soldier and early settler of Alta California. He joined the military at the age of twenty-one and rose to the rank of sergeant by the time he joined the Portola expedition ...

in 1769. The Spanish began to colonize California with 21 missions and the

Mission Santa Clara de Asis Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

was founded in 1777.

Mexican period

The

Battle of Santa Clara The Battle of Santa Clara was a series of events in late December 1958 that led to the capture of the Cuban city of Santa Clara by revolutionaries under the command of Che Guevara. The battle was a decisive victory for the rebels fighting ag ...

, one of the last battles of the

Conquest of California The Conquest of California, also known as the Conquest of Alta California or the California Campaign, was an important military campaign of the Mexican–American War carried out by the United States in Alta California (modern-day California), t ...

, was fought between a contingent of

Californios Californio (plural Californios) is a term used to designate a Hispanic Californian, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there sinc ...

, led by Francisco Sánchez, against the invading American forces.

American period

In 1851,

Santa Clara College Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mis ...

was established on the grounds of the original Mission. In 1852, Santa Clara was incorporated as a town; it became state-chartered by 1862. For the next century, the economy centered on agriculture since orchards and vegetables were thriving in the fertile soil. By the beginning of the 20th century, the population had reached 5,000 and stayed about the same for many years. In 1905, the first public high-altitude flights by humans were made over Santa Clara in gliders designed by John J. Montgomery. The

semiconductor industry The semiconductor industry is the aggregate of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductors and semiconductor devices, such as transistors and integrated circuits. It formed around 1960, once the fabrication of semiconduc ...

, which sprouted around 1960, changed the city and surrounding Valley of Heart's Delight; little of its agricultural past remains. Santa Clara's first medical hospital was built in 1963. This structure, on Kiely Boulevard, was replaced in 2007 with a new Kaiser Permanente medical center located on Lawrence Expressway at Homestead Road. Santa Clara was also home to a major mental health facility,

Agnews State Hospital Agnews Developmental Center was a psychiatric and medical care facility, located in Santa Clara, California. In 1885, the center, originally known as "The Great Asylum for the Insane", was established as a facility for the care of the mentally il ...

. According to the National Park Service, more than 100 persons were killed at this site in the 1906 earthquake. The site is the former home to

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, t ...

and is listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. In 1963, Santa Clara City Council voted to knock down the eight-block grid of Downtown Santa Clara, in order to receive federal funding for

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

. Since 2017, there has been a grassroots movement to rebuild Santa Clara's historic downtown.

Geography

Santa Clara is drained by three seasonal creeks, all of which empty into the southern portion of

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water f ...

; these creeks are

San Tomas Aquino Creek San Tomas Aquinas Creek, known locally as San Tomas Aquino Creek, is a streamU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 25, 2011 that heads on El Sereno mountain in El Seren ...

Saratoga Creek Saratoga Creek is a north-northeast flowing creek in Santa Clara County, California. History Saratoga Creek was originally called Arroyo Quito and then Campbell Creek after immigrant William Campbell, who operated a sawmill in 1848 in "Campbell's ...

, and Calabazas Creek. There are some significant biological resources within the city including

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

for the

burrowing owl The burrowing owl (''Athene cunicularia''), also called the shoco, is a small, long-legged owl found throughout open landscapes of North and South America. Burrowing owls can be found in grasslands, rangelands, agricultural areas, deserts, or an ...

, a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

of special concern in California due to reduction in habitat from urban development during the latter 20th century. This owl uses burrows created by ground squirrels and prefers generally level grasslands and even disturbed areas.

Coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecological nich ...

s have also become active in the area in recent years. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...

, the city covers an area of , all of it land.

Climate

The average daily temperatures in July range from to . Winters are mild, with the mean daily temperatures in January ranging from to . Most of the annual rainfall comes in the winter months; the summer months are generally rainless.

Demographics

2010

Carmelite Monastery - Santa Clara, CA, USA - panoramio (3)

The

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators serving ...

reported that Santa Clara had a population of 116,468. The population density was . The ethnic makeup of Santa Clara was 52,359 (45.0%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

, 3,154 (2.7%)

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 579 (0.5%) Native American, 43,889 (37.7%) Asian (13.6% Indian, 6.9% Chinese, 6.2% Filipino, 3.9% Vietnamese, 3.0% Korean, 1.5% Japanese), 651 (0.6%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

, 9,624 (8.3%) from

other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

, and 6,212 (5.3%) from two or more races. There were 22,598 people (19.4%) who identified as

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino; 14.6% of Santa Clara's population was of Mexican ancestry. The Census reported that 113,272 people (97.3% of the population) lived in households, 2,860 (2.5%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 336 (0.3%) were institutionalized. There were 43,021 households, out of which 14,477 (33.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 21,817 (50.7%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 4,081 (9.5%) had a female householder with no husband present, 2,038 (4.7%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 2,146 (5.0%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 312 (0.7%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 10,906 households (25.4%) were made up of individuals, and 2,945 (6.8%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63. There were 27,936 families (64.9% of all households); the average family size was 3.18. The age distribution of the population was as follows: 24,774 people (21.3%) were under the age of 18, 12,511 people (10.7%) aged 18 to 24, 41,876 people (36.0%) aged 25 to 44, 25,628 people (22.0%) aged 45 to 64, and 11,679 people (10.0%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.9 males. There were 45,147 housing units at an average density of , of which 19,747 (45.9%) were owner-occupied, and 23,274 (54.1%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.3%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.6%. 53,694 people (46.1% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 59,578 people (51.2%) lived in rental housing units.

2000

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

of 2000, there were 102,361 people, 38,526 households, and 24,117 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

was 2,149.1/km (5,566.2/mi²). There were 39,630 housing units at an average density of 832.0/km (2,155.0/mi²). The ethnic makeup of the city was 55.59%

, 2.29%

, 0.53% Native American, 29.27% Asian, 0.43%

, 6.94% from

, and 4.95% from two or more races. 15.99% of the population were

or Latino of any race. There were 38,526 households, out of which 27.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.4% were married couples living together, 9.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.4% were non-families. 25.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.14. In the city, the age distribution of the population showed 19.9% under the age of 18, 11.3% from 18 to 24, 39.1% from 25 to 44, 19.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 103.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.9 males. According to a 2007 estimate, the median

income Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. Fo ...

for a household in the city was $75,687, and the median income for a family was $98,977. Males had a median income of $58,641 versus $43,131 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the city was $31,755. About 4.5% of families and 7.8% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 6.3% of those under age 18 and 8.2% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

Santa Clara owns and operates an electric utility called Silicon Valley Power. In 2005 Silicon Valley Power brought online the Donald Von Raesfeld (DVR) Power Plant. The new

combined cycle A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas tur ...

gas turbine plant produces 147 megawatts of electricity for the city and its residents. As a result, the going rate for electricity in Santa Clara is considerably cheaper than that offered by Northern California's dominant utility,

Pacific Gas and Electric The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building, in San Francisco, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 milli ...

. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD),

Affymetrix Affymetrix is now Applied Biosystems, a brand of DNA microarray products sold by Thermo Fisher Scientific that originated with an American biotechnology research and development and manufacturing company of the same name. The Santa Clara, Cali ...

Agilent Technologies Agilent Technologies, Inc. is an American life sciences company that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for the entire laboratory workflow. Its global headquarters is located in Santa Clara, California. Agilent was establi ...

Applied Materials Applied Materials, Inc. is an American corporation that supplies equipment, services and software for the manufacture of semiconductor (integrated circuit) chips for electronics, flat panel displays for computers, smartphones, televisions, and ...

Arista Networks Arista Networks (formerly Arastra) is an American computer networking company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company designs and sells multilayer network switches to deliver software-defined networking (SDN) for large datacen ...

Aruba Aruba ( , , ), officially the Country of Aruba ( nl, Land Aruba; pap, Pais Aruba) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands physically located in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about north of the Venezuela peninsula of P ...

, Auditoria.AI,

Brillio Brillio is a company focused on digital technologies and big data analytics headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States History Brillio was formed in 2014 when Collabera, an information technology (IT) recruiting and staffing compa ...

Chegg Chegg, Inc., is an American education technology company based in Santa Clara, California. It provides homework help, digital and physical textbook rentals, textbooks, online tutoring, and other student services. The company was launched in 200 ...

Cloudera Cloudera, Inc. is an American software company providing enterprise data management systems that make significant use of Apache Hadoop. As of January 31, 2021, the company had approximately 1,800 customers. History Cloudera, Inc. was formed on J ...

Coherent Coherence, coherency, or coherent may refer to the following: Physics * Coherence (physics), an ideal property of waves that enables stationary (i.e. temporally and spatially constant) interference * Coherence (units of measurement), a deriv ...

, FileMaker, Hortonworks, Infoblox,

, Intevac, Marvell,

McAfee McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American global computer security software company head ...

, Move inc,

National Semiconductor National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems, formerly with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The company produced power management integrated circuits, display dr ...

OmniVision OmniVision Technologies Inc. is an American subsidiary of Chinese semiconductor device and mixed-signal integrated circuit design house Will Semiconductor. The company designs and develops digital imaging products for use in mobile phones, ...

Ooyala Ooyala (pronounced "oo-YAH-la") was a privately owned company focusing on video content workflow management systems. It began in 2007 as a venture-backed, privately held company founded by brothers Bismarck Lepe and Belsasar Lepe, and their col ...

Palo Alto Networks Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is an American multinational cybersecurity company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The core products is a platform that includes advanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings that extend those firewalls t ...

Rovi TiVo Corporation, formerly known as the Rovi Corporation and Macrovision Solutions Corporation, was an American technology company. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company is primarily involved in licensing its intellectual property ...

ServiceNow ServiceNow is an American software company based in Santa Clara, California that develops a cloud computing platform to help companies manage digital workflows for enterprise operations. Founded in 2003 by Fred Luddy, ServiceNow is listed on the ...

Silicon Valley Bank Silicon Valley Bank is an American commercial bank. SVB is on the list of largest banks in the United States, and is the biggest bank in Silicon Valley based on local deposits. It is a subsidiary of SVB Financial Group. History Silicon Valley Ba ...

Trident Microsystems Trident Microsystems was a fabless semiconductor company that in the 1990s, it became a well-known supplier of integrated circuits (commonly called "chips") for video display controllers used in video cards and on motherboards for desktop PCs ...

and

Veritas Technologies Veritas Technologies LLC. is an American international data management company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company has its origins in Tolerant Systems, founded in 1983 and later renamed Veritas Software. It specializes in sto ...

are among the companies headquartered in Santa Clara. The United States office of

Namco Bandai Games is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...

is in Santa Clara.

Top employers

According to the city's 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

Government

The current mayor of Santa Clara is Lisa Gillmor. Its city councilmembers are: Kathy Watanabe (District 1), Raj Chahal (District 2), Karen Hardy (District 3), Kevin Park (District 4), Suds Jain (District 5), and Anthony Becker (District 6). Santa Clara is represented in

California's 17th congressional district California's 17th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California that is currently represented by Ro Khanna. It is located in the South Bay and East Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area. The district i ...

for the U.S. House of Representatives, currently represented by . In the

California Legislature The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legislatu ...

, Santa Clara is part of California's 10th State Senate district and

California's 25th State Assembly district California's 25th State Assembly district is one of 80 California State Assembly districts. It is currently represented by Democrat Alex Lee of San Jose. District profile The district straddles the divide between the East Bay and Silicon ...

, represented in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

by and in the Assembly by . The city operates the Santa Clara City Library, which is not part of the Santa Clara County Library District.

Education

Santa Clara Unified School District The Santa Clara Unified School District is a school district in Silicon Valley, serving three cities in Santa Clara County, California: Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, California, Sunnyvale, and San Jose, California, San Jose. Sa ...

is the public school district that serves Santa Clara and small portions of Sunnyvale and North San Jose. The city is home to nineteen K–8, elementary, and high schools. Many of the schools are named for former farmers, ranchers, and other notable Santa Clara residents such as Bowers and Bracher elementary schools, Buchser Middle School, Wilcox High School, Santa Clara High School, and Mission Early College High School. A small part of the city however is served by Cupertino High School and its feeder schools in the nearby town of its namesake. Private schools in Santa Clara include the

Saint Clare School Saint Clare School is a Roman Catholic elementary school operated by Saint Clare Parish in Santa Clara, California, in the United States. Founded in 1856, it is the second oldest continuously operating elementary school in California and ser ...

(the oldest elementary school in California) and the Granada Islamic School (

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ma ...

school, grades K-12)

Higher education

Colleges and universities in Santa Clara include

(private Jesuit university), Mission College (public community college),

UC Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge ...

Silicon Valley extension campus, and

Golden State Baptist College Golden State Baptist College (GSBC) is an unaccredited independent Baptist Bible college in Santa Clara, California, offering bachelor's degrees and master's degree programs in fields related to Christian ministry. Programs Programs offered are ...

(private Baptist college).

Culture

Santa Clara is also home to

, an amusement park currently operated by Cedar Fair, L.P. Nearby is the

Santa Clara Convention Center The Santa Clara Convention Center is located in northern Santa Clara, California. It serves as one of the large meeting and convention facilities in Silicon Valley, with of meeting space. It was built in 1986 and expanded in 2009. The conventio ...

, one of Silicon Valley's largest event and meeting venues. Santa Clara also offers several museums such as the

Intel Museum The Intel Museum located at Intel's headquarters in Santa Clara, California, United States, has exhibits of Intel's products and history as well as semiconductor technology in general. The museum is open weekdays and Saturdays except holidays. ...

Triton Museum of Art The Triton Museum of Art is a contemporary art museum located at 1505 Warburton Avenue in Santa Clara, California. History The museum was founded in 1965 in San Jose, California, by rancher, lawyer and art patron W. Robert Morgan and his wife J ...

, and the Harris – Lass historical house. The

Our Lady of Peace Shrine Our Lady of Peace Shrine, also known as the Immaculate Heart of Mary Shrine, is a Roman Catholic shrine and landmark of the Diocese of San José, located in Santa Clara, California. The most notable feature of the parish is the 32-foot statue o ...

is notable for its statue which is visible from

Highway 101 Highway 101 was an American country music band founded in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. The initial lineup consisted of Paulette Carlson (lead vocals), Jack Daniels (guitar), Curtis Stone (bass guitar, vocals), and Scott "Cactus" Moser (drum ...

. The Mission City Center for Performing Arts is the city's venue for theatrical productions and entertainment.

Sports

Broncos_vs_49ers_preseason_game_at_Levi's_Stadium

The

Santa Clara Broncos The Santa Clara Broncos are athletic teams that represent Santa Clara University. The school colors are red and white. The nicknames for teams is The Broncos and the student fans are referred to as the "Ruff Riders". The Broncos compete in the N ...

are the Division I

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

athletic programs of

. Santa Clara sponsors 19 different teams, most of which compete in the

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...

. The red and white of the Santa Clara Broncos is featured on the flag of the city, as is the Mission which lies at the heart of the campus. The George F. Haines International Swim Center is home and host to numerous local, regional, and international

competitive swimming Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

matches. The

Santa Clara Vanguard Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps is a competitive Drum and bugle corps (modern), drum and bugle corps, based in Santa Clara, California. The Santa Clara Vanguard is one of the thirteen founding member corps of Drum Corps International (D ...

, a competitive marching music organization, has been headquartered in Santa Clara since its inception. The organization runs and operates a

winter guard Winter guard (sometimes spelled "winterguard") is an indoor color guard sport and performance art derived from military ceremonies. Modern winter guard is a competitive, performance-based activity which incorporates choreographed staging, dance, ...

, an

indoor percussion ensemble An indoor percussion ensemble or indoor drumline is type of marching ensemble consisting of the battery and front ensemble instruments. It differs itself from a traditional percussion ensemble by not only on musical performance, but on theatrics ...

, and two

drum and bugle corps Drum and bugle corps is a name used to describe several related musical ensembles. * Drum and bugle corps (modern), a musical marching unit * Drum and bugle corps (classic), musical ensembles that descended from military bugle and drum units retu ...

, all of which compete across the country every year. All four ensembles have been very successful competitively, especially the two drum corps, one of which has won 6 Open Class titles and the other 7 World Class titles. The latter is the only drum corps that has made finals every year since the beginning of Drum Corps International. The

NFL football team has its headquarters and practice facilities in Santa Clara. On Wednesday, November 8, 2006, the 49ers announced their intention to move the team to Santa Clara in time for the fall 2014 season, after negotiations failed with the city of San Francisco to build a new stadium.

Transportation

Santa Clara has two major train stations: the

Santa Clara – Great America station Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

and the Santa Clara station. Both stations are served by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...

's ''

Capitol Corridor The ''Capitol Corridor'' is a passenger train route in Northern California operated by Amtrak between San Jose, in the Bay Area, and Auburn, in the Sacramento Valley. The route is named after the two points most trains operate between, San J ...

'' train and the

Altamont Corridor Express The Altamont Corridor Express (also known as ACE, formerly Altamont Commuter Express) is a commuter rail service in California, connecting Stockton and San Jose during peak hours only. ACE is named for the Altamont Pass, through which it ru ...

(ACE); the latter is also served by

Caltrain Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as fa ...

. The city is served by the

VTA light rail VTA Light Rail is a light rail system in San Jose and nearby cities in Santa Clara County, California. It is operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, or VTA, and consists of of network comprising three main lines on stand ...

, which operates four stations:

Reamwood station Reamwood station is a light rail station operated by Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), located in Sunnyvale, California. This station is served by the Orange Line of the VTA light rail VTA Light Rail is a light rail syst ...

Old Ironsides station Old Ironsides station is a light rail station in Santa Clara, California operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) as part of the VTA Light Rail system. Old Ironsides is served by the Orange Line and is the northern term ...

Great America station Great America station is a light rail station operated by Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). Great America is served by the Orange and Green light rail lines. Great America is named for the nearby California's Great America the ...

, and Lick Mill station. Santa Clara is located adjacent to San Jose International Airport.

Sister cities

, Santa Clara has three sister cities: *

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

Izumo, Shimane is a city in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. Izumo is known for noodles and the Izumo-taisha Shinto shrine. History Izumo Taisha is the oldest Shinto shrine in Japan. In 2008, the holy area was open to the public from 1 August until August 17, ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2 ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

References

External links

*
Santa Clara Convention and Visitors Bureau website

Silicon Valley Central Chamber of Commerce, formally Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce website
{{authority control 1852 establishments in California Cities in Santa Clara County, California Cities in the San Francisco Bay Area Incorporated cities and towns in California Populated places established in 1777 Spanish mission settlements in North America