GPS City GuideSanta BarbaraDe La Guerra Plaza

Stop 8 of 24 · Santa Barbara audio walking tour

De La Guerra Plaza

Downtown Santa Barbara · 1950s · lively mid-century festival traditions

What you'll hear here: about a minute on De La Guerra Plaza — the story behind what you're looking at, playing hands-free as you arrive.

Booths, music, and festivities fill this public plaza around you each August during Santa Barbara's Fiesta, right next to the Santa Barbara News-Press offices. This plaza is best known for the activities that take place here during Santa Barbara's annual Fiesta in early August: booths, musical performances, and many festivities that fill the downtown air. Think of the 1950s, when a glass‑blowing booth let children buy and take home glass ornaments as souvenirs — a vivid mid-century touch that lingers in memories of the place.

De La Guerra Plaza takes its name from the Guerra family of California, a historically prominent Californio family, and it has been a public gathering place and festival area as far back as Santa Barbara's Mexican Alta California era. You are standing in front of the de la Guerra Adobe, the plaza’s long-time neighbor, and you can feel how celebrations have threaded this spot through generations. Let your ears imagine the music and your feet trace where booths and crowds have moved during Fiesta.

Notice the de la Guerra Adobe at the plaza's edge, with the Santa Barbara News-Press offices just beyond.

Where it is

Coordinates
34.41972, -119.69861
Area
Downtown Santa Barbara
Era
1950s · lively mid-century festival traditions
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.