HERITAGE TOWN YOU MIGHT WANT TO VISIT WITH YOUR FAMILY
Families are now seeking a tranquil and relaxing getaway from the rush and bustle of their everyday lives in the city. There are a lot of places to go in the Philippines, but have you considered exploring the beautiful Taal, Batangas?
Taal is a small town in Batangas with a wealth of historical sights. It is known for its old and historical landmarks and buildings. If you are into historical and ancestral places, you might want to consider visiting the majestic heritage town of Taal. Take in and experience the bygone days of the Spanish era.
Basilica of St. Martin de Tours
It is commonly known as Taal Basilica. It is the country’s and Asia’s largest church with a height of almost 90 meters and a span of 48 meters. Perched on a hill, towering over the old heritage town of Taal making it seen from most areas of the town proper and even some parts of the neighboring town of Lemery.
It is well-known for its exquisite architecture, rich historical background, and cultural relevance. Its design blends Filipino and Spanish elements, including a majestic façade, elaborate bell towers, and detailed carvings and sculptures. The church's architecture is a blend of Baroque, Gothic, and Romanesque styles.
It has an extensive and fascinating history back to the Spanish Colonial Era. The church was founded in 1575 by Spanish friars led by Fray Diego de Oropeza, who came to the Philippines to propagate Christianity among the locals.
The church is devoted to Taal's patron saint, Saint Martin of Tours, and is the biggest pilgrimage site in the Philippines. Thousands of Catholics visit the Basilica, attend mass, and participate in the yearly fiestas and religious events in Taal every year, traveling from all over the Philippines and outside the country.
Miraculous healing well of Sta. Lucia
Have you ever wondered about the miracle stories we hear from our ancestors? Well, this miraculous healing well is one of them.
Miracles attributed to the Virgin Mary are claimed to have occurred at the well. She was believed to have given the spring water its healing prowess. According to the accounts of multiple Spanish priests at Taal, the Virgin Mary would frequently reveal herself to pilgrims by emerging as a reflection in the spring.
The well is a few meters away from the Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Caysasay. Behind a neighborhood that abuts the famous San Lorenzo Ruiz Steps—a 125-step concrete staircase that links the shrine to the town center—lies the route that leads to the miraculous well.
Many pilgrims who came to the places would gather the healing waters with the hope that by doing so, they or their loved ones suffering from illnesses could be healed.
Galleria Taal
Moving on, are you interested in how photos are taken during the old times? If yes, then this camera museum got you covered!
Galleria Taal is known as the first camera museum in the Philippines located in Calle Marcela Agoncillo. It is undoubtedly a haven for aficionados and collectors of cameras as it displays Mr. Manny Inumerable's (grandchild of Domingo Ilagan and Maria Martinez) extensive collection of cameras spanning the late 1800s, early 1900s, and contemporary times.
It also has antique photographs on display, which serve as windows into the turbulent history of the Philippines. Among them are rare images of the people and events of the Marcos Era, the EDSA Revolution, and Manila taken both before and after the Japanese Occupation.
Most of the cameras exhibited are remarkably functional, and visitors to the gallery can even operate and observe some of them.
Aside from the church and miracle, there's more to see in this town; these grand ancestral houses turned museum will make you leave in awe.
Museo nina Leon at Galicano Apacible
Also known as the Apacible Ancestral House and, more officially, the Museo Nina Leon at Galicano Apacible, this former piece of occupation is now transformed into a two-story museum that houses artifacts held by both Galicano and Leon located in the Calaca-Lemery Highway.
It depicts the lives and works of two brothers, Leon and Galicano Apacible, and their roles in the war for Philippine independence in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Leon Apacible was a lawyer who joined the revolution as Gen. Miguel Malvar's right-hand man. Galicano Apacible, on the other hand, worked as a doctor. He, along with Jose Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena, and others advocated for reforms in Spain.
The Museum also holds artifacts, a plethora of antique furniture, and innumerable dinnerware pieces that date back to the 17th and 19th centuries.
Agoncillo-Marino Ancestral House
Another museum that you should not miss is the Agoncillo-Marino Ancestral House located beside Calle Marcela Marino Agoncillo.
This is the Ancestral home where the “Mother of Philippine Flag”, the first Philippine flag’s main seamstress, Marcela Agoncillo, was born, constructed by her grandfather Don Andres Mariño.
After her grandfather passed away, Marcela inherited the home and continued to reside there even after she married Felipe Agoncillo, who went on to become renowned as the "First Filipino Diplomat". It is also one of the oldest houses in Taal.
Casa Villavicencio
At the intersection of Calle Gliceria Marella, this magnificent ancestral home from before the 1850s remains proudly. Positioned near the front corner of the two-story bahay na bato is a monument dedicated to Doña Gliceria Legaspi Marella de Villavicencio, who owned the house and was the Godmother of the Philippine Revolutionary Forces during the Spanish Empire.
The new generation of the Villavicencio family still resides in this well-maintained ancestral home today. They also own several older Taal homes that they have maintained for remodeling and living.
Villavicencio Wedding Gift House
Another historical house is just beside the Casa Villavicencio, the Villavicencio Wedding Gift House. Don Eulalio Villavicencio gave this wedding gift to his wife, Doña Gliceria Legaspi Marella de Villavicencio. He gave his beloved a mansion to seal his eternal pledge. A lavish, strikingly gorgeous property that was envied by many. After a century, the house became known as “Casa Regalo de Boda” or “Wedding Gift House”.
Casa Recuerdos
"House of Memories"
Not far from the Casa Villavicencio is another interesting ancient colonial ancestral house, the Casa Recuerdos house built in the 1990s. It was once owned by Dr. Herminilgildo Del Castillo and is currently owned by the Villavicencio family.
This house serves as a museum with antique items, a photo studio, and a costume place where you can rent out attires and have your pictures taken. This will give you the genuine experience of being transported back in time while you are dressed in traditional Filipino garb. "Recuerdo" truly means "memory" in Spanish, so this house will definitely bring back many memories from the past.
Fill in your stomach!
After touring around the heritage, of course, we can’t let the tour end without having a taste of the favorite delicacies Taal could offer. Taal, Batangas is still one of the most popular places for tourists and locals to eat because of its filling home-cooked meals and calm atmosphere. Here are some places where Taal delicacies can be enjoyed filling your grumbling tummy.
Don Juan Boodle House
First stop, Boodle Fight. It is a traditional Filipino feast that is served on banana leaves and set out on a long table.
One of a kind, Don Juan Boodle House offers traditional Filipino dishes like Tapang Taal, Longganisang Taal, Pork Barbecue, Fried Tawilis, Adobo sa Dilaw, and Sinaing na Tulingan. It's getting more and more famous in Batangas because it's a distinct Filipino food experience.
Taal Bayview Bistro
If you need to unwind after a long tiring day from work, Taal Bayview Bistro is the perfect place for you with its pleasant atmosphere. Those in search of a tranquil spot to savor homemade comfort food while in the Batangas area should make a beeline for Taal Bistro.
Go to Shops!
No trip is complete without purchasing a souvenir to share with loved ones back home. If you are looking for a place where you can buy a lot of cute souvenirs, these go to shops are the perfect place for you.
Taal Public Market
Taal Public Market is one of the go to places for souvenirs and remembrance you want to buy. You may purchase local delicacies and goods, also their Burdang Taal (native embroidery) things.
Leo’s Balisong Shop
Butterfly knives, also known as balisong, fan knives or Batangas knives, —are folding pocketknives that originated here in the Philippines.
However, if you intend to purchase one, be very careful. It could get you in trouble, especially if you're traveling.
Visiting Taal is like stepping into a giant museum showcasing exquisite historical homes from bygone eras. As you look around the place, there are picturesque street scenes showcasing the majestic heritage and ancestral houses. Taal is a place that brings back fond memories of a simpler time and has a soothing atmosphere.
If you are looking for a vacation spot, you may want to visit this majestic heritage town of Taal.
About the Creator
Camille Angela Zarate
Camille Angela Zarate is a 4th year Journalism student from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines who is passionate about writing, creating, and sharing different stories while elevating perspectives.
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This is the Golden Temple. People come here from all over the world to bathe in its waters, to look at the Holy Book that is inside of this middle Golden Temple and to just experience the holiness of this place. This place is the epicenter of Sikhism. It sits right here in northern India in a city called Amritsar. Close by there's another important Sikh site called It was established by the founder of Sikhism more than 500 years ago. It's the place where he spent the last years of his life and it is the second holiest place in Sikhism. For centuries, Sikhs have been able to make pilgrimage between these two sites to move freely throughout their heartland. But in 1947 a British lawyer drew a border here turning what had been British India into two new countries, India and Pakistan. I could only call it one of the most bizarre lines, which were ever drawn across a map It went right here with the Golden Temple on one side and Katarpur on the other. Thanks to this border Sikhs in India are now cut off from their holy site. So many come here to a platform that the Border Patrol set up. The platform looks across the border where with the help of telescopes, Sikhs can look at their holy place just three or four kilometers away. In addition to cutting off communities from their sacred sites, this border separated families, cut across rivers, forests, farms, railroad tracks. Today this border is heavily fortified with nearly all 3,000, plus kilometers fenced. It's lit so well that you can see it from space and barely anything or anyone crosses over it When we talk about the drawing of the line, what was the most painful was the division of families which took place and that is a very big reality. This is the story of a violent separation. One of the most traumatic events of the 20th century It's the story of how a hastily drawn line on a map separated one people into two. This is a horror story. What we saw was a town soaked with the stench of death. In the train of murder and arson, come the refugees. Their suffering is the new tragedy of India. Many will never reach their new land. These are the things that are setting the heart burning on either side of the line. The sun is setting and I'm walking along one of the oldest roads in Asia One that used to connect this region but today a border runs through it and instead of connection and trade what you see here is this: There's barbed wire, there's fences, there are officers everywhere and yet, there's also ice-cream and popcorn and paraphernalia. This feels like a sporting event. You can buy keychains of machine guns. Thousands of spectators file in, filling this stadium that looks down on the border. On the other side Pakistanis are doing the same. Then, both sides start their different show. Two hours of chanting and dancing Then the finale, a face-off between the two sides. They strut back and forth in this coordinated choreography and it all ends with the lowering of each flag and the closing of this gate. This bizarre border show plays out every evening. But this ceremony, this fence, this intense nationalism If you rewind just a little in time, none of this existed. The British controlled parts of India for nearly 200 years but by 1947, a strong movement of independence was swelling across the subcontinent while back in Britain, the country was in massive debt after fighting World War II and didn't have the resources to hold on to their colony so they started making plans to leave India. British officials thought that a proper transfer of power would probably take around five years but when the British leader in charge arrived in early 1947, he hastily decided to shrink their exit timeline and so what needed five years would now need to be done in just four months. British India was to be split into two independent nations, a mostly Muslim Pakistan and a Hindu majority, but officially secular India. To do the actual drawing of the border, the British brought in a lawyer from London. He arrived the month before the British were supposed to leave India. He hadn't been to British India before and didn't know much about the region. He had no idea about India, no idea about Indian geography, no idea about Indian politics. And yet, he was the one drawing the lines on the map that would affect millions of lives. During his visit, this British lawyer looked at maps and census data, focusing on the maps that showed religious identity of people in India. India has a wide variety of religions and based on these census maps, you can see that people of all religions lived amongst each other all over the region. So to draw the line the British lawyer looked at individual districts putting any district that had a Muslim majority population into the new country of Pakistan, while Hindu and Sikh majority districts would be kept within India. Based on this method the lawyer began to see what a border might look like. He only had five weeks to do this. He later wrote that it would have taken years to settle on a proper boundary and that's because this method of drawing the line conceals that within these districts there were sizable communities of all religions that had been living side-by-side for centuries all throughout India. August 15 1947, Independence Day for India and Pakistan The British lawyer left that day. He would never return to India again. Two days after independence the borders were made public, prompting more than 14 million people to leave their homes, their lives for what was now their side of the border. We were told that you have to cross the border to India. Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan moved into India and many Muslims in India moved into the new Pakistan. These were people who were indeed forced to lose their entire homes, their memories, their childhood and the things they saw. It was one of the largest forced migrations of people ever and it was chaos, a chaos that led to widespread unspeakable violence cities on fire, sexual violence against women, trains, full of dead bodies. The survivors I talked to were just children when all of this happened. The division of the sub-continent became known as the partition of India. A phrase synonymous with trauma fueled by the reckless mismanagement of an imperial power. I'm in a small village right near the border on the Indian side that used to be a Muslim community before partition. And in the middle of town is this shrine where residents would conduct ornate Muslim burial practices on these graves. Look at the original maps at the British drew up when they were trying to draw this line. This town was actually in Pakistan in most of the maps. But in the end the British lawyer decided to draw the line here. The people here discovered that they were now a part of the new country of India and so many of them fled just across the border to the new state of Pakistan and they left this place empty. But just as Muslims were leaving this village for the new Pakistan, Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan were coming across into India and some ended up here. The Hindus and Sikhs that now live in this community have taken it upon themselves to continue the Muslim traditions that this community was based off of. They continue to maintain these graves and these symbols even though they don't necessarily pertain to their own religion. This is a sign of respect, of common identity in spite of the border. But this is just one side of the story. The sub-continent echoes and shudders to the sounds of a full-scale undeclared war. Within just a few months of drawing this border, India and Pakistan were fighting an all-out war. One that centered on this region in the north, which both sides claimed as their own. The new countries would fight several more wars over the years, a border fence would eventually fortify the majority of this boundary, and both countries would acquire nuclear weapons turning up the tensions and deepening the division. But if you take away the geopolitical bluster, the nukes, the barrier, the trauma of partition, you can still see how much these two countries have in common. I'm at a school in Delhi. Students are skyping with a school in Pakistan. These kids are speaking a similar language and it takes them just minutes to dive into the common roots of their culture. This shared identity with these kids are feeling isn't uncommon in India and Pakistan. Same language, same taste, same food Hindus and Muslims and Sikhs used to live together, attend each other's social functions, marriages, everything. We have this divide now. If you stand in the wall city in Amritsar and you stand in the walled city in Lahore believe me, the smells, which is a kind of giveaway are the same. I'm visiting a group of Sikhs coming off the train. They were able to get a visa to go visit this religious site that most have to see through a telescope. So with all these cultural similarities, all these happy faces, shared interests? How do you explain this? You see, it is a politician, who poisons people's minds. The divide is created, nurtured, fostered because it suits a certain politics. Over the years, politicians on both sides have exploited tension with the other side to stoke feelings of nationalism. Back here at this viewing platform, there are construction vehicles everywhere. 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