History of Bacolod City

Prior the coming of the Spaniards in Negros in 1565, there existed a small village near the mouth of the Magsungay river. It was a small settlement inhabited by Malayans who belonged to the “Taga-Ilog” group.

The exact date of Spanish contact with this village is not certain: lost in the hazy twilight of history that was pre-Spanish era. Incidentally, historical accounts of the Church provide us with a glimpse of the early years of Bacolod as a small settlement by the river bank.

When the neighboring settlement of Bogo (now Bago City) was elevated into the status of a small town in 1575, it had several religious dependencies, one of which was the village of Magsungay. The early missionaries place the village of Magsungay under the care and protection of St. Sebastian sometime in the middle of the 1700s. A “corrigidor” by the name of Luis Fernando de Luna (1777-1779), donated a relic of St. Sebastian for the growing mission, and since then, the village came to be known as “San Sebastian de Magsungay”.