Carcar, Heritage City of Cebu
Known as the Heritage City of Cebu, the town of Carcar is home to various Spanish and American-era houses and structures.
Carcar is also famous as Cebu’s shoe capital because of its long history as the province’s premier footwear manufacturer. Its native delicacies are also popular.
One of the most famous Spanish period structures in Carcar is the Saint Catherine of Alexandria Parish Church. The Greek Orthodox style inspires the main facade of the parish church because the domes of the two bell towers are similar to the bell towers of churches of the Greek Orthodox religion.
The parish church’s ceiling has beautiful symmetrical drawings and decorations. The concrete fence surrounding the church plaza has statues of saints standing on top of each fence column.
During the American period from 1922 to 1938, the then Mayor Mariano Mercado built several notable public structures in Carcar, including the Carcar dispensary, the Rizal Monument, and the Carcar Rotunda. All of them are still standing until now. The Carcar dispensary is now a public museum.
Located in the Carcar Plaza is the Carcar rotunda, a gazebo-like structure with intricate designs, stairways on four sides and two statues on top of its roof. During the last week of November, local and foreign tourists would flock to Carcar to watch the Kabkaban Festival, which is the town’s most famous yearly event.
Carcar’s most well known industry is the making of shoes and sandals. The industry started in the 17th century when sandals were the first footwear made and then leather shoes came later. The footwear industry reached its height in the 1960s.
Since then, many shoemakers have closed down due to problems like intense competition from other shoemakers in Cebu and from foreign shoe imports. However, through the resilience and determination of the remaining shoe-making businesses, they continue to operate until now. You can buy shoes and sandals in stores strategically located all over the town.
Carcar’s most famous native delicacies are ampao, bucarillo, and chicharon, which are just found all over the town. If you don’t have time to buy these delicious snacks, you can easily find them at the town’s bus terminal; you can also buy from vendors who go inside jeepneys and buses.
The City of Carcar is 40.5 kilometers southeast of Cebu City. Its boundaries are the Municipality of San Francisco in the north, the Municipality of Sibonga in the south, the Bohol Strait in the east and the municipalities of Aloginsan and Barili in the west. Carcar City has a population of 100,632 people. The Heritage City of Cebu, Carcar is home to various Spanish to American period structures. Carcar is administratively subdivided into 15 barangays namely Bolinawan, Buenavista, Calidngan, Can-asujan, Guadalupe, Liburon, Napo, Ocana, Perrelos, Poblacion I, Poblacion II, Poblacion III, Tuyom, Valencia and Valladolid.
Carcar's interesting history dates back to the pre-Spanish colonial period. the town originated from a seaside settlement called Sialo. The settlement was at the mouth of the Minag-a River and the natives early contact with the Chinese traders who frequent the place to barter goods in exchange for farm produce.
When the Spaniards came in the middle of the 16th century, Sialo became the town of Valladolid, named after a town in Spain. The town's progress made it a target of raids of moro marauders, driving villagers to the uplands. Soon, a new settlement was established in a site, which came to be known as Kabkad, from the word Kabkaban, a species of hardy fern that was aboundant in the place. Later on, a Spanish priest changed the name to Carcar, after a small town in the province of Navarro in Northern Spain.
Carcar is known as "Little Marikina in the South" because of the bustling shoe-making industry in barangays Poblacion 3, Liburon, Valladolid and Perrelos. Carcar is known for native delicacies such as sweetened rice crispies called ampao, the sweet bocarillo made of young coconut meat and the famous Carcar-made chicharon.
The Carcar plaza alone hosts several Heritage structures, the Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria dominates the area. Within the complex various structures stand. Walking towards Sta. Catalina street one will surely be astonished with the quaint houses and their distinctive architectural details. Must see destinations in Carcar include St. Catherine of Alexandria Church, the Theotokos Shrine in Perrelos, the Mainit-Mabugnaw National Park in Guadalupe and the old residential houses of the Noel and Leocadio-Justine Barcenilla families.
Getting there to Carcar City in Cebu Province
Mini-busses, aircon and non-aircon buses as well as vehicles-for-hire or VHire that leave for Carcar every hour are available at the Cebu South Bus Terminal. Upon reaching the town, tricycles, trisikads and motorcycles called habal-habal take tourists and locals around the town.
