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Santa Barbara has an unusual architectural coherence for a California city, and the reason is a disaster. The earthquake of June 29, 1925, magnitude 6.8, destroyed much of the commercial downtown in 45 seconds. The city decided to rebuild in Spanish Colonial Revival style, mandating terracotta roofs, whitewashed walls, and low-rise proportions across the entire downtown core. The result is a city that looks intentionally designed, particularly along State Street and around the historic El Presidio and Old Mission Santa Barbara. The County Courthouse, built in 1929 in a Spanish-Moorish style with hand-painted ceilings and a clock tower, is the most beautiful public building in California by a reasonable argument.

The Santa Ynez Valley wine country begins 30 minutes north over the San Marcos Pass, the same landscape that the 2004 film Sideways made famous for Pinot Noir.

The State Street Farmers Market on Saturdays draws from the farms of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and is one of the best in Southern California. The Santa Barbara Museum of Art on State Street holds a collection that would be distinguished in a city five times the size, with particular depth in American art and Asian decorative arts. The Channel Islands National Park, accessed by ferry from Ventura, protects a chain of five islands with endemic wildlife and sea cave kayaking.