San Fernando

About San Fernando

San Fernando, officially the City of San Fernando, is a component city and capital of the province of Pampanga, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 377,534 people.

The city is named after King Ferdinand VI of Spain and placed under the patronage of Saint Ferdinand III of Castile and León, whose feast is celebrated every May 30. Popularly known as the "Christmas Capital of the Philippines", the city holds the annual Giant Lantern Festival every December where large parol are displayed in competition. CNN has hailed the city as 'Asia's Christmas capital'.

The city is known as the birthplace of José Abad Santos, the 5th chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines and briefly served as the acting president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II.

It is one of the two provincial capital cities named San Fernando, the other being San Fernando, La Union in Ilocos Region.

The town of San Fernando was founded in 1754 from the towns of Bacolor and Mexico. The first church was built in 1755 with wooden walls and nipa roofing. The municipal...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.