Road Trips | Taal, Batangas: The Heritage Town

Basilica de San Martin de Tours (Taal)

Last year, I've been to Vigan City in Ilocos Sur and visited for the first time the Heritage Village, one of the popular tourist destinations up north. I went to Vigan to see the vintage houses in the Heritage Village not knowing that in my home province, we have our very own Heritage Town: Taal.

Taal: The Heritage Town

Taal is one of the 34 (3 cities included) towns in the province of Batangas, a 3rd class municipality belonging to the first district of the province. It was declared a heritage site; that is, a portion of this town or the Poblacion area was declared a heritage site (as seen on the marker) by the National Historical Institute.  I'm searching for the date when this town was declared a heritage town but so far, I can't find one (google failed this time..hehe!).

Taal arch marker

Taal is known for its balisong (fan knife) and Barong Tagalog and was declared as the balisong and Barong Tagalog capital of the Philippines. Several weeks ago however, I've read from a Yahoo post that burdang Taal (Taal's embroidery, an embroidered cloth used for making Barong Tagalog) is now a dying craft. I just hope that it's not true; that the local government do something about it; that they do try to preserve this embroidery industry which shows the Filipino craftsmanship; that it continues to be passed on from generations to generations. I hope!

Aside from this craft, Taal is also known for some famous Taalenos like Marcela Agoncillo, the maker of the first Philippine flag that was raised during the proclamation of Philippine Independence in 1898. Further, Taal is where the biggest church (read it on the net) in the Philippines is located, the Basilica de San Martin de Tours or more popularly known as Taal Basilica.

Basilica de San Martin de Tours was first built in 1575 in the present-day San Nicolas which is used to be part of Taal. Destroyed in 1754 because of the volcano eruption, it was then built in the present site in 1755. However, it was again destroyed by an earthquake in 1849 and was again built in 1856 by Architect Luciano Oliver. (source: church marker)

As I wrote in my previous post, we were not able to attend mass in Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church so we continue our road trip here in Taal. We arrived in the Taal Basilica at exactly 5:00PM, just in time for the afternoon mass which is the only scheduled Sunday afternoon mass that time. At the sight of the church's interior, I was amazed at how big this church is. It's really huge, its columns as wide as a human's arms spread sideways, maybe around 2 meters. The mass is about to start so I wasn't able to take some photos of it.  And because it was a Sunday, a lot of people were there to attend the mass.  I saw some tourists too, local tourists that is, based on their looks and the the cameras hanging on their neck.

After the mass, I again tried taking some pictures of the church's interior but I wasn't able to.  The church's interior is quite dark, my photos were blurry. We were also supposed to go up the church's bell tower as we saw some people there, I guess watching the sunset but it was already late.  We need to leave for Manila in a hurry because we're not familiar with the route we're supposed to take that time, the Lemery-Tagaytay route. Guided by my cellphone map again, we left Taal and the province of Batangas in a rush but with happy hearts.  We were not able to roam around the Poblacion area and see more of the heritage town but at least, we were able to attend the mass as planned. Plus we're able to spend some time out of town, not in the mall we're we usually go and spend time on weekends. Happiness, isn't it? :)

And this is the end of our road trip in Batangas, a tiring but fun adventure that starts with our bulalo food trip in Sto. Tomas followed by our visit to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Lipa City and ended here in Basilica de San Martin de Tours in Taal. This is Batangas, the home of ala eh, my home province. :)

Basilica of Saint Martin de Tours (another shot)

Taal Park, fronting the Taal Basilica

one of the old houses near the entrance to the town proper, just after the arch marker (photo above)

~oo00oo~

Date of Visit: March 11, 2012