Welcome to Antique!
The homeland of the Antiqueños is a rustic idyll of pristine islands, hot and cold springs, ancient churches and ruins, scenic beaches, and wooded mountain trails.
It is a paradise of picturesque spots and exciting experiences. Going from one place to another is to bask in the sight of majestic mountain ranges or the cerulean blue sea peeking out from behind roadside trees.
A walk along our highland trails is a chance to encounter such rare flora as “corpse flowers” and carnivorous plants.
A journey through the 18 towns in the province can lead to rare parasitic or carnivorous flowers, open up to a vista of valleys and peaks, or end in the sight of red-tinted or clear waterfalls, terraces carved on the mountainside, a running spring with the coldest water, and gushing rivers or quiet lakes.
History
Before it became Antique, the province was called Hamtic way back in the 13th century. The legendary datus who came to the Philippines from Borneo created the first Malay settlement in a town that now bears the province’s old name of Hamtic.
Of the legendary datus who went on to occupy Panay Island, Datu Sumakwel chose to remain and live in Antique.
The town of Hamtic used to be the provincial capital but it was transferred to San Jose de Buenavista in 1802, wrote Fr. Pedro Galende in his book “Angels of Stone.”
Another Catholic Church historian, Fr. Juan Fernandez, said early on that progress and modernization came slowly to Antique because of its isolated location.
Geography
Antique today takes pride in its unspoiled islands and preserved forests.
Narrow and long, and bordered by the Cuyo East Pass of the Sulu to the west and tall mountain ranges to the east, Antiqueños can rightly claim that Antique is where the mountains meet the sea.
Viewed from a map, Antique is shaped like a seahorse on the western border of Panay in Western Visayas. It is one of four provinces that make up the island mass.
Those who liken Panay Island to a three-cornered scarf see Antique as an oversized jagged hemline. Its unique location gives it one of the longest coastlines in the country.
