Santa Fe.

Santa Fe was founded in 1610, a decade before the Plymouth Colony, two centuries before New Mexico became a U.S. territory. That makes it the third-oldest American city, after St. Augustine and Jamestown, and by far the oldest state capital. The Pueblo peoples were here long before that, and Tewa villages still surround the city today. Spanish colonial, then Mexican, then American: Santa Fe is a place where four cultures didn't replace each other so much as accumulate.

Most of what makes Santa Fe visually distinctive is the result of an unusual decision the city made in 1957, a Historic Districts ordinance that requires new construction in the historic core to be in either the Pueblo Revival or Territorial style, with adobe, stucco, and traditional materials. The result is a downtown where Walmart can't look like Walmart and a Whole Foods looks like a hacienda. It's not theme-parking; it's preservation that worked. The Plaza, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis, the Palace of the Governors (continuously occupied since 1610 and the oldest continuously-used public building in the U.S.), Canyon Road's mile of galleries, all of it reads as one architectural language.

The cultural infrastructure is what most surprises new arrivals. The Santa Fe Opera draws international talent to a 2,126-seat open-air theater (plus 106 standing-room places) every summer. The Indian Market in August is the country's largest Native arts gathering. The Spanish Market follows in late July. Around 250 galleries operate in a city of 88,000, a per-capita density unmatched anywhere outside Manhattan. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains rise to the east; the Jemez and Sandia ranges define the horizon to the west. None of this is exotic to Santa Feans. It's just where they live.