Catbalogan City and Around

Catbalogan City is capital of Samar and it is the Samar’s main commercial, trading, educational, political and financial center.

It is also an important and major seaport that serving the island vessels.

Catbalogan City’s the central geographical location in Eastern Visayas that make it ideal as the gateway to the region’s three Samar provinces.

The people in Catbalogan City are called Catbaloganons.

Catbalogan was founded or settled in October 1596 by the priests of the Jesuit Order (Society of Jesus). Like old towns of the country, Catbalogan has narrow streets and is dominated by the Catholic Church, the Municipio with its plaza, the Provincial Capitol with its park and two piers jutting out to the beautiful Maqueda Bay.

The original name of Catbalogan was Katbalaugan or Kabalaugan. The two syllables of the name are compounds of the prefix kat- or ka- and the substance noun balaug of the Samar Leyte Visayan (waray) language. Balaug was a shrub that used to thrive along Catbalogan’s seashore and sandy banks of the Antiao River.

Katbalaugan or Kabalaugan means a place where seafarers, fishermen or sailors take shelter or protection. The total area of Catbalogan City is 274.22 square kilometer. Its urban land area is 30.71 square kilometer and its rural land area is 244.25 square kilometer. Its Poblacion covers an area of 1.30 square kilometers.

A tricycle is the main transportation around the City.