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St. Thomas of Villanueva Parish Church
Bayawan started out as a mission established by Royal Decree of 1868 along with San Sebastian and Inayauan. It was then known as “New Tolong” and served as the seat of government from which the poblacion and Sta. Catalina (Old Tolong) was administered. The mission supervised the town center and the barrios of Pangadban, Camayan,…
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San Isidro Labrador Parish Church
Designated as a town in 1850, Zamboanguita was initially under the spiritual administration of Dauin until it was established as a parish by the Recollects dedicated to St. Isidore the Farmer some 15 years later. The first Recollect missionary assigned to Zamboanguita when it became a parish on May 21, 1866 was Fr. Faustino Sanchez.…
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Plaza Hamabar
Hamabar was one of the names of Rajah Humabon, the leader of Cebu, a flourishing trading post and settlement since the 10th century. He was also known as Humabad. Humabon was regarded as the “wisest and bravest man on the island” of Sugbu (Cebu), the “king and lord over eight chieftains and over 2,000 lancers,”…
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1730 Jesuit House Museum
The oldest dated house in the Philippines was hidden in plain sight inside a warehouse in Cebu’s Parian district for many years. Jaime Sy, who owns the house and Ho Tong Hardware within the compound, stumbled upon its significance quite by accident. At the Ateneo, when he was in college, Sy was flipping through a…
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San Juan Bautista Parish Church
Dionisio Alo stood seething with anger as authorities tore down the magnificent San Juan Bautista Parish Church in Parian in the late 1870s. “His heart bled with every stone that was removed and all he could do was bite his lips causing them to also bleed,” said Ang Sugbo sa Karaang Panahon: An Annotated Translation…
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Heritage of Cebu Monument
Cement, iron, and steel come together to form the towering Heritage of Cebu Monument built right on the original Plaza Parian in Cebu City. Conceptualized by the late National Artist sculptor Eduardo Castrillo, the mammoth structure depicts significant moments in Cebu’s history beginning with that fateful fight of April 21, 1521 in the island of…
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Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish Church
Enrique Villanueva was erected as a town and parish close to 50 years after the creation of the first five parishes in the island of Siquijor. It wasn’t part of the cluster of five parishes that were already established by 1877 under the religious administration of the Augustinian Recollects. Formerly known as Talingting, from the…
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Former site of the Manila High School
The market known as the Parian de San Jose once stood on this site from 1783-1860. Established by Governor-General Jose Basco, 1738; then demolished, 1860. This site was then occupied by the Escuela Municipal de Niñas from 1892-1899. It was renamed as the Manila Grammar School and American High School, 1899-1905, then as the Manila…
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Former site of the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura
Established by Royal Decree in 1846, the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura was incorporated under the School of Arts and Trade in 1889. It was elevated to the rank of an Escuela Superior in 1893 but was dissolved due to lack of funding in 1898.
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Former site of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas
The school was established by the friars of the Order of the Preachers as the Colegio de Santo Tomas de Nuestra Señora de Santissimo Rosario in 1611. In 1645, It was raised to the status of a university by Pope Innocent X. The university was graced with the following titles: “Royal” by King Charles III…