looking towards the
Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol building
Spanish colonial period Historical church accounts provide a glimpse of the early years of Bacolod as a mere small
settlement by the riverbank known as
Magsungay (translated as "horn-shaped" in English). When the neighboring settlement of
Bago was elevated into the status of a small town in 1575, it had several religious dependencies and one of which was the village of Magsungay. The early missionaries placed the village under the care and protection of
Saint Sebastian sometime in the middle of the 18th century. A
corregidor () by the name of Luis Fernando de Luna, donated a relic of the saint for the growing
mission, and since then, the village came to be known as
San Sebastián de Magsung̃ay. Bacolod was not established as a town until 1755 or 1756, after the inhabitants of the coastal settlement of
San Sebastián de Magsung̃ay, were attacked by
forces under
Datu Bantílan of
Sulu on July 14, 1755, and the villagers transferred from the coast to a hilly area called
Bacólod (which is now the barangay of Granada). Bernardino de los Santos became the first
gobernadorcillo (). The town of Bacolod was constituted as a
parroquia () in 1788 under the
secular clergy, but did not have a resident
priest until 1802, as the town was served by the priest from
Bago, and later
Binalbagan. By 1790, slave raids on Bacolod by
Moro pirates had ceased. at night On February 11, 1802, Fr. Eusebio Laurencio became acting parish priest of Bacolod. In September 1806, Fr. León Pedro was appointed interim parish priest and the following year became the first regular parish priest. In September 1817,
Fray () Julián Gonzaga from
Barcelona was appointed as the parish priest. He encouraged the people to settle once again near the sea. He also encouraged migration to Bacolod and the opening of lands to agriculture and industry. Of which, 37 were Spanish-Filipino tributes amounting to the same number of Spanish-Filipino families residing in the province. In 1846, upon the request of Romualdo Jimeno,
bishop of
Cebu and
Negros at that time,
Governor-General Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa sent to Negros a team of
Recollect missionaries headed by priest Fernando Cuenca. In 1889, Bacolod became the capital of
Occidental Negros when the province of Negros was politically divided into the separate provinces of
Occidental Negros (
Spanish:
Negros Occidental) and
Oriental Negros (
Spanish:
Negros Oriental).
Revolution and Republic of Negros and the Bacolod Old City Hall, the site where the Spanish authorities surrender Bacolod to the forces of General
Aniceto Lacson which took place on November 6, 1898, during the Negros Revolution. The success of the uprising in Bacolod and environs was attributed to the low morale of the local imperial Spanish detachment, due to its defeat in
Panay and
Luzon and to the psychological warfare waged by Generals
Aniceto Lacson and
Juan Araneta. In 1897, a battle in Bacolod was fought at Matab-ang River. A year later, on November 5, 1898, the
Negrense Revolucionarios (), armed with knives,
bolos, spears, and rifle-like
nipa palm stems, and pieces of
sawali or
amakan mounted on carts, captured the convent, presently
Palacio Episcopal (), where Colonel Isidro de Castro y Cisneros, well-armed
cazadores () and
platoons of
Guardias Civiles (), surrendered. On November 7, 1898, most of the revolutionary army gathered together to establish a provisional junta and to confirm the elections of
Aniceto Lacson as president,
Juan Araneta as war-delegate, as well as the other officials. For a brief moment, the provinces of
Occidental Negros and
Oriental Negros were reunited under the cantonal government of the
Negrense Revolucionarios, from November 6, 1898, to the end of February 1899, making Bacolod the capital. In March 1899, the
American forces led by
Colonel James G. Smith occupied Bacolod, the revolutionary capital of
República Cantonal de Negros (). They occupied Bacolod after the invitation of the
Republic of Negros which sought protectorate status for their nation under the United States.
American colonial period during bicycle (
kalesa) races in 1901 '' The Cantonal Republic of Negros became a
U.S. territory on April 30, 1901. This separated Negros Island once again, reverting Bacolod to its status as the capital of
Occidental Negros. The public school of
Instituto Rizal () opened its doors to students on July 1, 1902.
Colegio de Nuestra Señora de la Consolación (), the first private institution in the province of Negros Occidental, was established in Bacolod by the
Augustinian sisters on March 11, 1919, and opened in July 1919. Soon, Bacolod welcomed a large number of immigrants from Spain, mainly
Basques and
Catalans, who became plantation owners. A historic event took place in 1938 when
Municipality of Bacolod was elevated into a city through
Commonwealth Act No. 326 passed by the
1st National Assembly of the Philippines creating the City of Bacolod. Assemblyman Pedro C. Hernáez of the
second district of Negros Occidental sponsored the bill. The law was passed on June 18, 1938. Bacolod was formally inaugurated as a
chartered city on October 19, 1938, by virtue of Commonwealth Act No. 404, emphasised by the visit of
Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon. President Quezon appointed
Alfredo Montelíbano, Sr. as the first city mayor of Bacolod.
Japanese occupation and allied liberation In
World War II, Bacolod was occupied by the
Japanese forces on May 21, 1942. Lieutenant General Kawano "Kono" Takeshi, the Japanese
commanding officer of the 77th Infantry Brigade, 102nd Division, seized the homes of
Don Generoso Villanueva, a prominent sugar planter—whose home, the
Daku Balay served as the "seat of power" (occupational headquarters for the Japanese Forces in Negros and all of the Central Visayan region of the Philippines) and being the tallest building of Bacolod it served as the city's watchtower—and the home of his brother-in-law, Don Mariano Ramos, the first appointed
Municipal President of Bacolod. The home of Don Generoso was lived in by Lt. General Takeshi throughout the duration of the war and also served as his office and the home of Don Mariano was occupied by a Japanese Colonel serving under the command of Lt. General Takeshi. The city was liberated by joint
Philippine and American forces on May 29, 1945. It took time to rebuild the city after liberation. However, upon the orders of Lt. General Takeshi, both the homes of Villanueva and Ramos were saved from destruction by the retreating Japanese forces. In March 1945, upon the invasion of the American and Philippine Commonwealth forces, the withdrawal of the Japanese army into the mountains and the temporary occupation of Bacolod by the combined U.S. and Philippine Commonwealth armed forces, the house of Villanueva was then occupied by Major General Rapp Brush, Bacolod was classified as a highly urbanized city on September 27, 1984, by the provision of Section 166 and 168 of the Local Government Code and the DILG Memo Circular No. 83-49. In January 1985, the original hardwood and coral structure of
Palacio Episcopal was almost entirely destroyed by a fire. Among the damage of the raging fire were items of significant historical value. The reconstruction of
Palacio which took more than two years, was completed in 1990. In 2008, Bacolod topped a survey by
MoneySense Magazine as the "Best Place to Live in the Philippines". The city has also been declared by the
Department of Science and Technology as a "center of excellence" for
information technology and
business process management operations. In 2017 & 2019, Bacolod was awarded the "
Top Philippine Model City" as the most livable urban center in the country by
The Manila Times. In 2021, Bacolod received the "2021 Most Business-Friendly Local Government Unit (LGU) Award" under the category of highly urbanized cities outside the National Capital Region (NCR) in the search organized by the
Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI). This was the second time Bacolod received such award having won the same title in 2007. ==Geography==