North Miami Beach is a city in northeastern Miami-Dade County, Florida, situated about 12 miles north of downtown Miami and just south of Aventura, with Sunny Isles Beach and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Home to roughly 43,000 residents, it is a dense, ethnically diverse inner-ring suburb shaped by its location along Biscayne Boulevard and the Intracoastal Waterway. The city's defining landmark is the Ancient Spanish Monastery, formally St. Bernard de Clairvaux Church. Originally built in the 12th century in Sacramenia, in Spain's Segovia province, the cloister was dismantled in the 20th century, shipped to the United States, and reassembled in North Miami Beach, where it now serves as an Episcopal church and a Florida Heritage attraction. It is often described as among the oldest European-built structures in the Western Hemisphere. North Miami Beach's neighborhoods include canal-front communities such as Eastern Shores, which sits near Aventura and Sunny Isles Beach, and residential areas such as Sunray East beside Greynolds Park. The city offers a mix of mid-century single-family homes, condominiums, and waterfront properties, and its commercial corridors reflect the region's Latin American, Caribbean, and international influences. Public schools fall under Miami-Dade County Public Schools, one of the nation's largest districts, with institutions such as Florida International University's Biscayne Bay campus nearby. Residents benefit from quick access to I-95, Biscayne Boulevard, the Golden Glades Intermodal Transit Center, and regional rail, while Greynolds Park and Oleta River State Park provide substantial green space. The combination of a distinctive historic landmark, waterfront neighborhoods, and transit access gives North Miami Beach a character all its own within the Miami metro area.