01/09/2026
BAGUIO CITY WAS ORIGINALLY CALLED "KAFAGWAY"
Imagine standing in a vast, open valley, surrounded by the rolling mountains of the Cordillera. Cool mountain air sweeps across wide stretches of grassland, long before busy roads, towering buildings, and crowds fill the landscape. This was Kafagway, the original name of what we now know as Baguio City.
Kafagway, an Ibaloi term commonly understood to mean “wide open space,” described the landscape that once occupied the heart of the city.
Kafagway referred to the open valley and grass-covered area where Baguio City's central business district now stands. Long before the arrival of the Americans and the development of Baguio as a mountain retreat, the land was already part of the ancestral domain and homeland of the indigenous Ibaloi people.
The name Kafagway reflects what Baguio once looked like, a vast, open highland surrounded by the mountains of the Cordillera.
Today, the modern and bustling city may look very different from the wide open space remembered by its original name, but Kafagway remains an important reminder of Baguio’s indigenous roots and history.
Before Baguio became the City of Pines, it was Kafagway, a wide open space in the heart of the Cordillera.
