In one of the public squares is a Dominican church built in 1538.
San German was founded in 1517, was plundered by the French in 1528, was destroyed by corsairs in 1554, and was unsuccessfully attacked by the English in 1748. Until 1782 it was the seat of government of the western district of the island. It was made a city in 1877.
SAN GIMIGNANO, a town of Tuscany, Italy, in the province of Siena, 24 m. N.W. of Siena, at an elevation of 1089 ft. Pop. (1901) 4060 (town); 10,066 (commune). Being surrounded by its ancient walls, and retaining thirteen out of its original fifty towers, it is, with its predominantly Gothic architecture, a thoroughly medieval town in appearance. In the council chamber of the town-hall (1288-1323) is a fresco by Lippo Memmi of the Madonna enthroned of 1317, copied closely from the similar fresco (the “Majestas”) by his master Simone di Martino in the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena; there is also a curious frescoed frieze of 1291, with knights in armour. The museum in the same building contains pictures and other objects of art. The tower is the highest in the town (174 ft.), while the Torre dell' Orologio (167 ft.) close by marks the height beyond which private individuals might not build. In the same piazza is the Collegiata (the former cathedral) of the 12th century, enlarged after 1466 by Giuliano da Maiano, whose brother Benedetto erected the chapel of S. Fina from his plans in 1468, and carved the fine marble altar, the original painting and gilding of which are still preserved. The marble ciborium, a small reproduction of the splendid one in S. Domenico at Siena, is also by Benedetto. The beautiful frescoes with scenes from the life of the saint (a local saint who died at the age of fifteen) are the earliest work of Domenico Ghirlandaio, completed before 1475. There are also some frescoes of his cousin Bastiano Mainardi (d. 1513). The cathedral contains other 14th-century and early Renaissance paintings, the former including some Passion scenes, the only certain work of Barna da Siena, and some fine choir stalls. S. Agostino (1280-1298) contains a famous series of seventeen frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli, with scenes from the life of St Augustine (1463-1467). They have been to some extent restored. The altar of S. Bartoldus, by Benedetto da Maiano, is not unlike that in the Collegiata (1494). The town was independent in the 13th century, but in 1353, owing to the dissensions of the Salvucci (Ghibellines) and Ardinghelli (Guelphs), it fell into the hands of Florence.
See R. Pantini, San Gimignano e Certaldo (Bergamo, 1905).
SANGLI, a native state of India, in Bombay, ranking as one of the Southern Mahratta Jagirs. The territory is widely scattered among other native states and British districts. Area, 1112 sq. m. Pop. (1901) 226,128; estimated revenue, £10,000. The river Kistna waters part of the country, which is exceedingly fertile. Millet, rice, wheat and cotton are the chief crops, and cotton cloth is manufactured. The chief, whose title is Tatya Saheb Patwardhan, is a Brahman by caste. The town of Sangli, on the river Kistna, has a station on the Southern Mahratta railway, 11 m. from Miraj Junction. Pop. (1901) 16,829.
SANJO, SANETOMI, Prince (1837-1891), Japanese statesman, was one of the old court nobles (kuge) of Japan, and figured prominently among the little band of reformers who accomplished the overthrow of feudalism and the restoration of the administration to the Mikado. He served as the first prime minister (daijo daijin) in the newly organized Meiji government.
SAN JOSÉ, a city and the county-seat of Santa Clara county, California, U.S.A., situated in the coast ranges, about 46 m. S.E. of San Francisco and 8 m. S.E. of the southern end of San Francisco Bay, in the heart of the beautiful Santa Clara Valley. Pop. (1890) 18,060; (1900) 21,500, of whom 4577 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 28,946; land area (1906), about 6 sq. m. It is served by the Southern Pacific railway, which has car shops and terminal yards here. The city lies mainly on a gently rising plateau (altitude, 90 to 125 ft.) between the Coyote and Guadalupe rivers. It is a popular health resort.
Besides St James and City Hall parks in the city, San José has Alum Rock Canyon Park, a tract of 1000 acres, with sixteen mineral springs, in Penitencia Canyon, 7 m. east. This park is connected by electric railway with the city. San José is the seat of the University of the Pacific (Methodist Episcopal), which was founded at Santa Clara in 1851, removed to its present site just outside the city in 1871, and had 358 students in all departments in 1909-1910; of the College of Notre Dame (1851; Roman Catholic), and of a State Normal School. Among charitable institutions are a Home of Benevolence (1878) for orphans and abandoned children, the Notre Dame Institute (for orphans) under the Sisters of Notre Dame, and the O'Connor Sanatorium. The Lick Observatory, opened in 1888 on the top of Mount Hamilton (4209 ft.) with a legacy of $700,000 left by James Lick (1796-1876) of San Francisco, is 26 m. distant by road, and the New Almaden quicksilver mine (the greatest producer in California and long among the greatest in the world) is about 14 m. south. The Santa Clara Valley has many vegetable and flower-seed farms; it is one of the most fertile of the fruit regions of California, prunes, grapes, peaches and apricots being produced in especial abundance. More than half the prune crop of California comes from Santa Clara county. In 1905 the total value of the factory product of San José was $6,388,445 (94.1% more than in 1900); nearly one-half ($3,039,803) was the value of canned and preserved fruits and vegetables, $619,532 of planing-mill products, and $518,728 of malt liquors—much barley is grown in the Santa Clara Valley.
San José de Guadalupe (after 1836 for a time “de Alvarado” in honour of Governor J. B. Alvarado) was founded in November 1777, and was the first Spanish pueblo of California. The mission of Santa Clara was founded in the vicinity in January 1777, and the mission of San José, about 12 m. north-east, in 1797. Near the original site of the former, in the town of Santa Clara (pop. 1900, 3650), a suburb of San José, now stands Santa Clara College (Jesuit; founded 1851, chartered 1855). Throughout the Spanish-Mexican period San José was a place of considerable importance. In 1840 its population was about 750. In the last years of Mexican dominion it was the most prominent of the northern settlements in which the Hispano-Californian element predominated over the new American element. The town was occupied by the forces of the United States in July 1846; and a skirmish with the natives occurred in its vicinity in January 1847. San José was the first capital of the state of California (1849-1851) and in 1850 was chartered as a city.
SAN JOSÉ, or San José de Costa Rica, the capital of the republic of Costa Rica, and of the department of San José; in the central plateau of the country, 3868 ft. above sea-level, and on the transcontinental railway from the Pacific port of Puntarenas to the Atlantic port of Limón. Pop. (1908) about 26, 500. San José is an episcopal see, the most populous city in Costa Rica, and the centre of a rich agricultural region; its climate is temperate, its water-supply pure and abundant. The city was founded in 1738, and became the capital in 1823 (see Costa Rica: History). It is thoroughly modern in appearance, with macadamized streets lighted by electricity; its houses are one-storeyed so as to minimize the danger from earthquake. The suburbs consist chiefly of cane huts, tenanted by Indians and half-castes. The larger of two public gardens, the Morazan Park, contains a representative collection of the Costa Rican flora. The principal buildings are the cathedral, founded in the 18th century but restored after 1870, the hospital, government offices, institutes of law and medicine and of physical geography, training school for teachers, national bank, museum, library and barracks. The staple trade of San José is in coffee.
SAN JUAN, an Andine province of Argentina, bounded N. and E. by La Rioja, S. by San Luis and Mendoza, and W. by Chile, from which it is separated by the Andean Cordilleras. Area, 33,715 sq. m.; pop. (1904, estimate) 99,955. It is roughly mountainous, and belongs to the closed drainage basin of western Argentina, centring in the province of Mendoza. It is traversed by several rivers, fed by the melting snows of the Andes and discharging into the swamps and lagoons in the S.E. part of the province, the largest of which are the Huanacache lagoons. The largest of these rivers are the Vermejo, Zanjón or Jachal and San Juan. They are all used for irrigation. The climate is extremely hot and dry in summer, but the winter temperature is mild and pleasant. Agriculture is the principal occupation of its inhabitants, though the soil is generally sterile
