San Rafael, California

San Rafael is a city in Marin County, California, and the county seat, lying in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States. Its name is Spanish for Saint Raphael. The settlement began as a Spanish religious outpost: in 1817 Vicente Francisco de Sarría established Mission San Rafael Arcángel, at first as an asistencia or sub-mission of a larger mission, and it was raised to full mission status in 1822, a month before Alta California declared independence from Spain as part of Mexico. After the American conquest of California the community was incorporated as a city in 1874. The 2020 census counted 61,271 residents.