Calamba City Facts for Kids

Calamba City is a city in the province of Laguna, Philippines. The city is 54 kilometres (34 mi) south of Manila. Calamba City is a popular tourist destination. It has several hot spring resorts. Most of these are in Barangay Pansol. There are 651 resorts and hot springs in the city. The Canlubang Golf and Country Club has been the host of many Philippine Open (golf) Philippine Opens. Calamba is also an important modern industrial center in the CALABARZON region. This is shown by the large number of industrial parks and business estates in the city. 360,281 people live in the city. There are in 58,466 households. Calamba City is the most populated city in Laguna province. San Pedro, Laguna, San Pedro, Santa Rosa City, Biñan City, and San Pablo City follow it as the top 5 municipalities and cities by number of people in the province.

Calamba City is the birthplace of José Rizal. He is a national hero in the Philippines.

History

The name of the city comes from a legend. The legend says that during the early time of the Spanish period in the country, two "guardias civil" or Spanish soldiers were lost. As they moved through the area that is now Calamba, they met a young woman. She came from a river carrying a jar of water and a wooden stove. The soldiers asked the lady what the name of the place was. They asked this in Spanish and used an angry tone to hide the fact that they were lost. She did not speak Spanish and thought she was being questioned about what she was carrying. She answered "kalan-banga", meaning "clay stove" (kalan) and "water jar" (banga). Because they could not pronounce it correctly, the city has been called Calamba since then. This legend is immortalized with a large concrete water jar built in the city plaza with the names of the city's barangays written on it. It is said to be the World's Biggest "Claypot". This same jar is also in the city's seal. The idea to build the plaza came from Dr. Agapito Alzona. He was a town councilor at the time. It was built on an unused area that was at one time the old town market. The plaza was built in 1939.

Before it became a separate city, Calamba was a part of Tabuco. Tabuco is now known as Cabuyao, Laguna|Cabuyao. Calamba became an independent pueblo on August 28, 1742.

With the passage of Republic Acts of the Philippines Republic Act No. 9024 on April 7, 2001 and the approval of the people on April 21, Calamba went from being a Philippine municipality into being Laguna's second city. San Pablo City was the other component city at the time. Calamba is seen as a major growth center.

On October 28, 2003, Calamba City became the regional center of Region IV-A CALABARZON.

Calamba has been the home to five national heroes: Dr. Jose Rizal, General Paciano Rizal, Teodora Alonzo, General Vicente Lim, and Lt. Geronimo Aclan.

The main church in Calamba City is the St. John the Baptist Church. It was built in 1859. The church was burned by the Japanese during World War II. It was rebuilt by Fr. Eliseo Dimaculangan. It was the christening site of Jose Rizal. The original baptismal font has been is still there.