Philippine E-Journals

Not a Church, Not a Fort, Not a Bahay na Bato, Not a Municipio: Other Forms of Infrastructure Built in the Spanish Philippines

Edgar Allan M. Sembrano

 

Abstract:

In the Spanish colonial Philippines, structures were built for religious and military purposes. Examples include churches constructed throughout the archipelago, watchtowers, and fortifications on sea shores, and promontories as sentinels and defense edifices against pirate attacks. However, there were also other structures constructed for different purposes aside from military and religious. This paper explores the relativelyambiguous infrastructure projects in Spanish Philippines and discusses the process of locating and identifying them, giving the largely-unknown Spanish colonial dams of Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan, and Ilocos Norte as examples. This study is an introductory inquiry on the subject matter which includes unknown sites in the Visayas such as puentecitos of Iloilo, escuelas of Bohol, sugar simborios of Western Visayas, and public markets such as that of Baclayon, Bohol.