Santa Clara is a city in Santa Clara County, California, named after the Spanish mission that was established there in 1777. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the grounds of Santa Clara University.

Santa Clara is located in the center of Silicon Valley and is home to the headquarters of several high-tech companies such as Intel. Bordered by San Jose, Sunnyvale, and Cupertino, it is also home to Santa Clara University, the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of California.