San Remigio was formerly known as
Kanghagas, a kind of tree that grew in abundance in the area. When the Spanish conquistadores arrived, they identified a town site by clearing the
kanghagas trees. At the time, Kanghagas was part of
barangay Punta. Initially, the
chapel of ease (
visita) of Kanghagas was under the jurisdiction of Bantayan. In 1850, the town of Bogo established a parish and took over civil governance of the three barrios of Kanghagas, Lambusan, and Victoria (formerly Maarat). Later, barangay Kanghagas was renamed Isabel after the
Queen Isabela II of Spain, but was eventually changed in 1863 to its permanent name, San Remigio. The name
San Remigio can be found in
San Remigio, Florence, an Italian church from in the 1100s and later rebuilt in the 1300s. In 1864, San Remigio and other barrios established their own parish, San Juan Nepomuceno. The town sustained extensive damage during the
2025 Cebu earthquake on September 30; 22 of the 72 deaths recorded came from San Remigio. ==Geography==