the name of the city comes from a legend. the legend says that during the early time of the spanish period in the country, two "guardias civil" or spanish soldiers were lost. as they moved through the area that is now calamba, they met a young woman. she came from a river carrying a jar of water and a wooden stove. the soldiers asked the lady what the name of the place was. they asked this in spanish and used an angry tone to hide the fact that they were lost. she did not speak spanish and thought she was being questioned about what she was carrying. she answered "kalan-banga", meaning "clay stove" ("kalan") and "water jar" ("banga"). because they could not pronounce it correctly, the city has been called calamba since then. this legend is immortalized with a large concrete water jar built in the city plaza with the names of the city's barangays written on it. it is said to be the world's biggest "claypot". this same jar is also in the city's seal. the idea to build the plaza came from dr. agapito alzona. he was a town councilor at the time. it was built on an unused area that was at one time the old town market. the plaza was built in 1939.