San Jose Sights

  1. Cathedral Basilica of St Joseph

    At the top of Plaza de Cesar Chavez is the Cathedral Basilica of St Joseph, the pueblo's first church. Originally constructed of adobe brick in 1803, it was replaced three times due to earthquakes and fire; the present building dates from 1877.

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  2. Children's Discovery Museum

    This Downtown tech museum for kids has hands-on science and space displays, plenty of nifty toys and some cool play-and-learn areas such as the kooky 'Alice's Wonderland'. The museum is on Woz Way, which is named after Steve Wozniack, the co-founder of Apple and now a fifth-grade teacher.

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  3. Electric Light Tower

    Electric Light Tower The centerpiece is a half-scale replica of the 237ft-high 1881 Electric Light Tower. The original tower was a pioneering attempt at street lighting, intended to illuminate the entire town center. It was a complete failure but, lights or not, was left standing as a central landmark until it toppled over in 1915 due to rust and wind.

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  4. History Park

    Historic buildings from all over San Jose have been brought together in this open-air museum southeast of the city centre in Kelley Park. The centerpiece is a half-scale replica of the 237ft-high 1881 Electric Light Tower.

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  5. Peralta Adobe & Fallon House

    Peralta Adobe & Fallon House are historic San Jose houses that represent two very different early architectural styles, sitting across the road from each other near San Pedro Sq. To see the houses, drop by the visitors center.

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  6. Plaza de Cesar Chavez

    This leafy square in the center of downtown, part of the original plaza of El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, is the oldest public space in the city. It's named after Cesar Chavez - founder of the United Farm Workers, who lived part of his life in San Jose - and is surrounded by museums, theaters and hotels.

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  7. Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum

    One of San Jose's more interesting attractions is the odd and educational Egyptian Museum which has an extensive collection that includes statues, household items and mummies. There's even a two-room, walk-through reproduction of an ancient subterranean tomb. The museum is the centerpiece of Rosicrucian Park west of downtown San Jose.

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  8. San Jose Museum of Art

    The city's central art museum is one of the Bay Area's finest, with a strong permanent collection of 20th-century works and a variety of imaginative changing exhibits. The main building started life as the post office in 1892, was damaged by the 1906 earthquake and became an art gallery in 1933. A modern wing was added in 1991.

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  9. Santana Row

    A completely planned real-estate venture that opened in 2002, Santana Row reflects the kind of urban planning that's starting to appear in fast-growing communities throughout California. It's a mixed-use space that brings together shopping, dining and entertainment along with townhouses, lofts and flats. There's a large boutique hotel and a multiplex cinema.

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  10. Tech Museum of Innovation

    You don't know the meaning of interactive until you've been to the 'Tech' Museum of Innovation, possibly the slickest museum on earth. You'll see bright and shiny exhibits on robotics, genetics and animation, with lots of cartoon characters hopping around in them. It's all like being dunked in a neon-bright, Nickelodeon-inspired pool of warm liquid silicon.

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  12. Winchester Mystery House

    The billboards up and down every highway in California may have triggered your tourist-trap alarm, but Winchester Mystery House is a bona fide curiosity. It's a ridiculous Victorian mansion with 160 rooms of various sizes (many of them utterly useless), dead-end hallways and a staircase that runs up to a ceiling all jammed together like a child's build-a-house game.

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