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Saint Rita's relic in Santa Rita
Since 2008 the town named for Saint Rita of Cascia has kept a first-class relic of her, shown to the faithful every August 17.
Santa Rita
Stories
History in Pampanga
© Ralff Nestor Nacor on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA
© Ralff Nestor Nacor on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SACulture
A relic of Saint Anne in Santa Ana
Santa Ana's parish keeps a bone relic of its patron with a Roman certificate from 1796. The story of the church that holds it.
Santa Ana
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Fort Stotsenburg: the cavalry post that became Clark
Before the air base, there was a US cavalry fort. All that is left of Fort Stotsenburg are its gateposts.
Clark
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Pisamban Maragul: the big church of Angeles
Built over two decades with forced labour and used as a US Army hospital: the story behind Angeles's Holy Rosary church.
Angeles
Food
Armando's Pizza and the Camalig
How a 19th-century granary in Angeles became home to a pizza billed as the national pizza.
Angeles
© Patrickroque01 on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SAHistory
Don Angel's town: how Angeles began
A founder's house of 1824, a granary of 1840 and an image of the Guardian Angel: the beginnings of Angeles.
Angeles
© Ralff Nestor Nacor on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SACulture
A cathedral that rose three times
From a thatched chapel in 1754 to the neoclassical cathedral of today, San Fernando's church has been burned and rebuilt more than once.
San Fernando
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The end of the line: San Fernando station and the Death March
An 1892 railway station that welcomed Rizal and, fifty years later, received the prisoners of the Bataan Death March.
San Fernando
Community
Porac after Pinatubo
How the 1991 eruption buried Porac's villages and river in lahar, and how the town rebuilt on two sides of the Pasig-Potrero.
Porac
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Candaba church: a school, a refuge and a mission
Candaba's 1575 parish was once a grammar school and, during the British occupation, a refuge for Manila's friar students.
Candaba
© Ralff Nestor Nacor on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SAHistory
Villa de Bacolor: when a town was Pampanga's capital
For two centuries Bacolor was the capital of Pampanga, and for two years it was the capital of the Spanish Philippines in exile.
Bacolor
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Mexico's old chapels: San Jose Matulid and Sabanilla
Mexico claims one of the oldest chapels in Asia, and keeps a rare Spanish-era chapel in Sabanilla. Their stories.
Mexico
© Armanbarbuco on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SAHistory
Balen Melacuan: the Magalang that moved
Magalang began somewhere else. How a river flood in 1863 made a town pick up and start over at the foot of Mount Arayat.
Magalang
© Ralff Nestor Nacor on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SACulture
Pimpin: Santa Ana's old names
Santa Ana was once Pimpin, and its barangays still answer to names like Kanukil, Darabulbul and Balen Bayu.
Santa Ana
© Ralff Nestor Nacor on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SACommunity
December 8, 1941: the fiesta that became a war
Guagua was celebrating its patroness when news of Pearl Harbor arrived. How the town lived through the war that followed.
Guagua
© Ralff Nestor Nacor on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SAHistory
From Wawa to Guagua: a river port's story
How a settlement at the mouth of a river became the busy port of Pampanga, with steamboats from Manila and a railway terminus.
Guagua
© Ralff Nestor Nacor on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SACulture
A relic of Saint Peter in Apalit
In 2017 Apalit's parish received a fragment of Saint Peter's bones, adding to a church already rich in history.
Apalit
History
San Simon: named for a governor and an apostle
How the farming village of Barrio del Pilar became San Simon in 1771, and the double meaning behind its name.
San Simon
Community
Living with the water: Macabebe's sinking landscape
A new book by a Macabebe-born historian reads the town's 697 place names alongside the science of its slow submergence.
Macabebe
© Ralff Nestor Nacor on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SAHistory
Bangkusay and the nameless hero of Macabebe
The young Macabebe chieftain who led the first Luzon resistance against Spain in 1571, and why his town now remembers him on June 3.
Macabebe
History
Gumain River: from lahar to a river worth an award
How the Gumain River, buried by Pinatubo's lahar in 1991, became the Palakol Summer Place and an award nominee.
Floridablanca
© Ralff Nestor Nacor on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SACulture
White flowers and a friars' hacienda: how Floridablanca got its name
From the Augustinians' Hacienda de San Jose de Calampaui to a town named, most likely, for a white-flowered shrub.
Floridablanca
© Roel Balingit on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SAHistory
Casa Nicolasa and the woman who nursed soldiers
A Spanish-era house in San Fernando where Nicolasa Panlilio cared for the wounded of the Philippine-American War.
San Fernando
© Jammaekas on Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SAHistory
Lily Hill and the Goddess of Peace
The highest point in Clark served American and Japanese soldiers before becoming a shrine to peace in 1998.
Clark