Spain founded the Mission Santa Clara de Asís in 1777 and over the following two and a half centuries that mission would become a thriving city at the heart of Silicon Valley—home to multiple high-tech companies as well as to the nationally celebrated NFL team, the San Francisco 49ers, and to Santa Clara University, the oldest university in the state of California.

In the mid 1800s ,Santa Clara’s economy was entirely based on agriculture, due to the fertile soil in and around the city, where fruit orchards and vegetable fields sprang up. The orchards were so prevalent that in 1886 the San Jose Board of Trade called Santa Clara the “Garden of the World.” But less than a century later the city’s economy began to migrate toward technology as the first public high-altitude flights by humans were conducted over Santa Clara and the semiconductor industry emerged. Today Santa Clara hosts the headquarters of Agilent Technologies, Intel, National Semiconductor, OmniVision, Synaptics and Veritas Technologies among many others.

Located 45 miles southeast of San Francisco on the southernmost part of the Bay, it is bordered on all land-bound sides by San Jose, Sunnyvale and Cupertino. It covers an area of 18.4 square miles and is known for it’s sunny climate and mild winters. With a population of about 116,00, it is the 9th largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area. Internally the city operates an efficient public transportation system that includes both buses and light rail. Santa Clara also has two major train stations for intercity travel which are served by both Amtrak and Caltrain.

The Santa Clara Unified School District serves Santa Clara and also small portions of Sunnyvale and North San Jose. Many of the schools are named for local figures such as ranchers and farmers including Bowers Elementary and Bachers Elementary, Buscher Middle School, Wilcox High School and Santa Clara High School.

In addition to the Levi’s Stadium which is the home of the San Francisco 49ers and hosted the 50th Super Bowl, the city also hosts the Mission City Center for Performing Arts, Triton Museum of Art, the Intel Museum, Computer History Museum, the Santa Clara Convention Center and an amusement park called California’s Great America.

Santa Clara downtown offers authentic Italian cuisine, Austrian, Japanese, BBQ, gastropubs, artisanal bars, and late night diners. The city of Santa Clara is in a renaissance period, working with its residents to revitalize the downtown, restore architectural facades and bring a return of the original trolley to connect the downtown with a nearby transit center and coming BART station.