Welcome to Santa Clara
Santa Clara is located in the center of
Silicon Valley and is home to the headquarters of several high-tech companies such as
Intel. It is also home to
Santa Clara University, the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of California, which was built around Mission Santa Clara de Asís.
Levi's Stadium, the home of the
National Football League's San Francisco 49ers, is located in the city. Santa Clara is bordered by
San Jose on all sides, except for
Sunnyvale to the west, and
Cupertino to the west.
A Brief History of Santa Clara.
In 1769, Jose Francisco Ortega, scouting for the Portola-Serra party, became the first European to visit the fertile valley that later became known as the Santa Clara Valley. The area was inhabited by Indians who were named Los Costanos (the coast people) by the Spanish and later were called the Ohlone. Spain began colonizing California by establishing a string of 21 churches, called missions, that eventually stretched 600 miles along the California Coast from San Diego to Sonoma. The Franciscan padres (priests) selected the fertile valley discovered by Ortega to establish the eighth mission, Mission Santa Clara, named for Saint Clare. The mission was founded on January 12, 1777.
