Naga City

Naga, officially the City of Naga (Central Bikol: Ciudad nin Naga; Rinconada Bikol: Syudad ka Naga; Tagalog: Lungsod ng Naga; Spanish: Ciudad de Naga), or simply Naga City, is a 2nd class independent component city in the Bicol Region, Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 196,003 people.

The town was established in 1575 by order of Spanish Governor-General Francisco de Sande. The city, then named Ciudad de Nueva Cáceres (New Cáceres City), was the third Spanish royal city in the Spanish East Indies, after Iloilo and Manila.

Geographically and statistically classified, as well as legislatively represented within Camarines Sur, but administratively independent of the provincial government, Naga is the Bicol Region's trade, business, religious, cultural, industrial, commercial, medical, educational, and financial center. It was awarded the title of "Most Competitive Component City in the Philippines", along with being the "Center of Good Governance in the Philippines".

Naga is known as the "Queen City of Bicol", and as the "Heart of Bicol", due to its central location on the Bicol Peninsula; and as the "Pilgrim City" because Naga is also the destination of the largest Marian pilgrimage in Asia, the Our Lady of Peñafrancia, whose image is one of the most popular objects of devotion in the country. Naga is also known as "One of the Seven Golden Cities of the Sun" as stated by Nick Joaquin.

The city is the seat of the metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Caceres, whose jurisdiction includes all the suffragan sees of Bicol.