The town was founded in 1881 by German immigrants, the town was renamed after General Bernardino Caballero, president of Paraguay between 1880 and 1886.
The Hotel del Lago (Lake Hotel) in San Bernardino was where the German nationalist Dr. Bernhard F�rster spent the last 6 weeks of his life, before committing suicide on 3 June 1889 by taking an overdose of strychnine
