Town
Bacolor
The Athens of Pampanga: former provincial capital and home of the half-buried San Guillermo Church.
Bacolor is a municipality of 21 barangays with about 48,000 residents at the 2020 census. Known as the Athens of Pampanga, it was the provincial capital from 1755 to 1904, and during the British occupation of Manila from 1762 to 1764 it served as the seat of the Spanish government-in-exile.
Lahar from Mount Pinatubo, from 1991 to 1995, buried most of the town and raised it to its current level. The San Guillermo Parish Church, the "sunken church", was half-buried. It has been restored and is in use: visitors now enter through what were once its second-floor windows.
Bacolor is also tied to Kapampangan literature, as the birthplace of Anselmo Jorge de Fajardo, called the father of Kapampangan literature, and the home of writer Juan Crisostomo Soto.
Good to know about Bacolor
Why is San Guillermo Church half-buried?
Lahar from Mount Pinatubo between 1991 and 1995 buried most of Bacolor, including half of the church. It has been restored, and visitors enter through former second-floor windows.
Why is Bacolor called the Athens of Pampanga?
For its role in Kapampangan culture and literature. It was the provincial capital from 1755 to 1904 and the birthplace of the father of Kapampangan literature.
Was Bacolor ever a capital?
Yes. It was Pampanga's capital from 1755 to 1904, and the seat of the Spanish government-in-exile during the British occupation of Manila, 1762 to 1764.