The Castro District—on Castro Street from Market Street to 19th Street in the heart of San Francisco—is the world's first, largest, and most famous gay neighborhood. It has been a symbol of gay pride since the sixties and seventies, when figures like Harvey Milk established themselves as business owners and activists. One of the district's most notable sites is the Castro Theatre, a movie palace constructed in 1922 that is still one of the city's best. The theater is at the intersection of Castro and Market streets, the location of many historic marches, protests, and events through the years. Other sites of interest include Pink Triangle Park, at 17th Street and Market, which has a monument dedicated to gay prisoners targeted by the Nazis in World War II, to whom pink triangles were sewn; Twin Peaks, the first gay bar in San Francisco; and Hartford Street Zen Center, a small Buddhist temple open to the public.

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