The Paco Park (originally named as Cementerio General de Dilao) is a recreational garden and was once Manila's municipal cemetery built by the Dominicans during the Spanish colonial period.

According to an on-site inscription, an order for the construction of a cemetery in Bagumbayan was issued in 1807, due to the outbreak of a cholera epidemic in Manila.

In 1859, Governor Fernándo Norzagaray y Escudero proposed the extension of the cemetery to approximately 4,500 square yards, enclosing the original plan with another circular outer wall.

On February 29, 1980, then Press and Cultural Attache of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Philippines, Dr. Christoph Jessen with then NPDC Vice-Chairperson Teodoro Valencia started a classical concert at the park as part of the celebrations for the “Philippine-German Month.” The program became a tradition, a weekly fare held every Friday afternoons called the “Paco Park Presents.” The event featured and highlighted the exchange of Filipino and German musical artists who performed at Paco Park and it served as a means to strengthen the bond between Germany and the Philippines.

Ildefonso P. Santos, Jr., a noted landscape architect who was given recognition as a Philippine National Artist, was involved in the designing of Paco Park.

[4] Inside the Paco Cemetery is a chapel dedicated to St. Pancratius, a Roman citizen who converted to Christianity, and was beheaded for his faith at the age of just 14 around the year 304.

The chapel is under the care of the San Vicente de Paul Parish and the Vincentian fathers who also manage the nearby Adamson University.