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The town of Pila is a typical Philippine town during the Spanish occupation. This is what our towns and cities look like before modernization stepped in. A large plaza surrounded by stone houses also known as the bahay na bato.

The houses around the Pila town plaza has been perfectly restored and kept for the next generations to appreciate. The town of Pila was also granted the status of Villa during the Spanish Colonnial Period. The town was then called La Noble Villa de Pila in 1610.

In more than three centuries of Spanish occupation, only eight cities and towns were given the title of Villa. These are the La Villa del Santisimo Nombre de Jesus de Cebu in 1565, La Villa de Santiago de Libon (Albay, 1573), La Villa Fernandina de Vigan (Ilocos, 1574), La Villa Rica de Arevalo (Iloilo, 1581), La Noble Villa de Pila (Laguna, 1610), La Muy Noble Villa de Tayabas, (Tayabas, 1703), La Villa de Bacolor (Pampanga, 1765), La Villa de Lipa (Batangas, 1887).

It is also interesting to note that the first Philippine dictionary was printed in Pila, and it is still housed in one of the museums there. And in May 17, 2000, the National Historical Institute declared the Pila Town Plaza and the ancestral houses surrounding it as a National Historical Landmark.

Source: List of Spanish Villas

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 11:51 am and is filed under Laguna, Road Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.