Colonial Urban Planning and Land Structures in the Philippines, 1521-1898

Pilar Chias*1 and Tomas Abad2

1
2

Professor, Department of Architecture, University of Alcala, Madrid, Spain

Researcher, Department of Architecture, University of Alcala, Madrid, Spain

Abstract
The Spanish Colonial period in the Indies extends from 1492 to 1898, when the last colonies - Cuba,
Puerto Rico and the Philippines - attained their independence. The Philippines depended on the Spanish

were founded along the archipelago with the traditional grid structure, but some with other urban typologies
have not been studied before. At the beginning they were mostly located on the coast and later became port
cities, but the ensuing exploration of inland territories led to the construction of new settlements, later linked
through a network of roads, railroads and navigational routes. Based upon the ancient cartography of the
Philippines that the authors have recently discovered in the principal Spanish repositories, the present article
the territorial structures that were consolidated during the Spanish Colonial period in the Archipelago.
Keywords: Spanish colonies; urban typology; land planning; Philippine Islands; ancient cartography

1. Introduction
The activities led by the Spanish Crown on the
Philippine Archipelago lasted almost four centuries.
They began in 1521, when the expedition of
Magallanes and Elcano sighted for the first time the
coasts of Cebu Island, and invited the Rajah to submit
to the King of Spain. Later explorers in 1527 and 1529
reconnoitred the Islands of Samar, Leyte, Cebu, Mactan
and the north coast of Mindanao. They developed
commercial relationships with China (Walker 1979;
Falcn 1989), and even the tornaviaje (the maritime
1565 was the year of an outstanding expedition:
Philippine Archipelago -San Miguel-, located on the
east coast of Cebu. About two hundred new villages
and presidios (fortresses) followed, spread over the
islands, and mainly at the coast: the most important
was Manila (1571), founded over an existing native
commercial settlement.
One important point to consider about the Spanish
colonial period in the Philippine Archipelago is that
*Contact Author: Pilar Chias, Professor, Department of
Architecture, School of Architecture and Geodesy,
Santa Ursula 8, 28801 Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Spain
E-mail: [email protected]
( Received April 15, 2011 ; accepted January 23, 2012 )

it has been studied mainly from two points of view,

both the historical and the architectural1. Whereas the
perspectives of urban planning and land structures in
the Philippines have been usually forgotten or scarcely
mentioned in the researches, the main focus has been
on the American cities (Garca Bellido et al. 1968;
Chueca and Torres Balbs 1981). Only the town of
Manila and the neighbouring port of Cavite aroused
the interest of researchers2.
This is an important drawback, as the lack of
the only pattern applied to the new settlements was the
regular grid. The authors' research evidences new and
more complex urban typologies.
A further concern is that the relationships established
between places and sites wove a set of complex
territorial sub-systems which also involved the
maritime sphere. The authors' study will allow for the
understanding of the historical structures and dynamics
of individual regional systems which still survive and
which can still be recovered as part of the cultural
memory.
Both targets will contribute to spreading the cultural
heritage of the Philippines.
2. Methodology
1/ Sources: The research is based on the discovery of
a large collection of unpublished ancient cartography
of the Philippine Islands, kept in the main Spanish
archives and repositories 4. This collection includes
manuscripts and printed maps (Fig.1.), nautical charts

Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering/May 2012/16

(Fig.2.), urban and architectural plans, old pictures and

were made both by Spanish and foreign cartographers
who worked for the Spanish Crown from the midsixteenth century to the end of the 19th century.
2/ Design and construction of digital cartographic
databases of the Spanish ancient cartography of the

which were limited or focussed on printed maps (Pardo

urban types, considering the Spanish legislation

and its influence on the main Spanish foundations

which include: a/ alphanumeric data related to the

catalogue number, history, cartographic techniques,
descriptions, references, accuracy, etc; b/ a high
resolution image of each map with its related metadata
(Chas and Abad 2010).
This collection of recently discovered maps
completes other previous cartographic compilations

Fig.2. Malaspina Expedition, Printed Chart of Palapa Inlet,

Samar Island, 1792. Museo Naval, Madrid (Spain)

Fig.1. Manuscript Jesuit Map of the Settlements and Fortresses

Seville, Spain

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Query to Databases

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between 1521 and 1898; b/ to find the patterns of

urban developments according to the character of
each city related to its commercial and military
activities-, and also depending on its social, political,
cultural and geographical conditions; this analysis
includes a comparison of the dimensions of the
blocks as well as of the main urban composition and
structures; c/ to define the successive levels reached
by the relationships that were established between the
settlements and the territorial sub-systems.
4/ Conclusions can be directly drawn to explain
the current situation of the above-defined urban and
territorial structures, helping to take further decisions
on urban planning actions even in the event they have
disappeared, and those conclusions will permit them
to be included in the historical memory as a part of the
cultural heritage of the Philippines.
Types
The oldest colonial settlements on the Philippine
Archipelago were isolated forts and villages,
surrounded by hostile Muslim territories and located at
the coast. All of them were designed according to the
provisions of the Leyes de Indias (Indies Legislation)5,

city and four leagues of land was given, as well as

other privileges; 5/ building and public space design
should be admired by the natives, as urban design and
architecture played an essential role in the political
propaganda and image of the Spanish Empire (Figs.4.
and 5.); 6/ to prevent damage to native settlements and
their rights.

Fig.5. Colonial Street in Vigan

repercussions of these laws on the new Philippine

foundations had not then been studied.

Fig.4. Fernando Brambila, San Francisco Square in Manila,

1789. Museo Naval, Madrid (Spain).

As a short rsum, their main guidelines were: 1/

to find the most appropriate place to develop their
main activities in safe harbours on inlets, bays, and
river banks; as headlands to control the territories or
the farming settlements in fertile plains; it was also
necessary to provide the easiest terrestrial and maritime
connections to other settlements; 2/ to choose the most
suitable way of defining the new urban structures,
easily separating the Spanish from the native quarters;
4/ cities should have at least ten residents, preferably
farmers and cattle-raisers, to whom a block in the

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Fig.6. Main Spanish Foundations in the Philippine Archipelago,

Cited in the Text

According to the information provided by the

cartographic databases, and the effects of the Spanish
the cities (Fig.6.) as follows.
1/ According to their function:
1.1/ port cities, mainly engaged in long distance
foreign trade with other Asian ports (Canton, Macao,
Malaka) and American ports (Acapulco); examples:
1.2/ military port cities, essential to maintain Spanish
sea power; for example, Jolo (Jolo Island), Zamboanga,
Iligan and Tandag (Mindanao Island) (see Fig.1.);

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important ports of call for local trade lines, and natural

harbours in stormy weather; for example, Sorsogon,
Cebu (Cebu Island), Samar (Samar Island);
1.4/ forts on headlands; for example, Pollok
(Mindanao), Isabela (Basilan Island);
1.5/ inner plots and cities which consolidate the
terrestrial routes and defences, as well as some
strategic exploitations such as wood for shipyards and
tobacco plantations; examples are Amadeo (Mindanao),
Vigan, Balabac, and the settlements in Cagayan Valley

urban sprawl; floods and earthquakes are common

phenomena in this area, and they historically
conditioned the urban development as well as the
height of the housing and the main buildings, and even
of the bell towers. But distortions in the grid were
also due to later urban developments: they frequently
absorbed the neighbouring native settlements and
suburbs into the new urban structure (Fig.7.; see also
the urban growth of Manila in Fig.10.);

1.6/ cities at riversides, for example Cotabato (rio

Grande de Mindanao).

Fig.8. The Medieval Tradition of the Itinerary Cities: Urban Plan

th

Century; Total Length: 650 m; at Both Sides of the Main Street

there were Four Sets of Rectangular Blocks, Each One 70 m
and commercial Life (Source: Garca Bellido et al. 1968, 108)

(Ibung, Banbang, Bagabag, Diadi, Solano), and the Distortions

Introduced by the Geographical Factors
(Aritao, Dupax, Bayombong)

2/ According to the urban type:

2.1/ regular grid cities, usually composed of
rectangular blocks, facing two sets of orthogonal
streets; that constitute the main typology of the Spanish
colonial foundations both in the American and the
Mayor (main square), extending over an area of at least
one block, and where outstanding urban events took
place; secondary squares strategically placed for other
urban uses such as port or trading activities, and they
also occupied a block or a part of it; the most relevant
example still extant of this typology is the city of Vigan
2.2/ cities with a distorted grid, mainly due to
geographical conditions, such as rivers and hills that
determined the urban borders and still control the

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this is an old European urban typology that the

authors noticed for the first time in the Philippines;
this typology formerly appeared along commercial or
pilgrimage routes in the Middle Ages, such as the Road
to Santiago of Compostela (Chemin de Saint Jacques)
(Fig.8.); its blocks were arranged along the main road
also the main street-, and facing it; two secondary
streets ran parallel and were symmetrically arranged at
both sides of the main street. In the Philippines, linear
cities were about 250 m in length, and each square
was about 45 m long and 20 in depth, having back lots
and a regular shaped plot of land outside the town
remember the Indies Instructions. These dimensions
cleary follow the same proportions as those of the
European linear towns, although on a reduced scale.
They also had two secondary parallel streets and wide
market squares inside the urban frame, where the main
buildings were placed; and in the most populated ones,
sometimes there were two squares that communicated
across the main street. Examples are Calocan, Marilao,
2.4/ irregularly shaped cities: that is the usual plan
for native settlements, as well as for spontaneous
suburban developments. Main examples are the old
suburbs of Manila previous to urban reforms in the 18th
century, where native (sangleyes) or foreign traders
(mainly Chinese and Malaysian) settled before the
arrival of the Spanish conquerors (Fig.11.); another

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Fig.11. View of Manila. Oil on a Wooden Chest Lid, c. 1645.

Museo de Arte Jose Luis Bello, Puebla (Mxico). This Nave
Picture Shows the Daily Life of the Town and its Suburbs, as
well as the Irregular Arrangement of the Native Constructions

of Manila, Designed According to European Renaisance

Treatises. Notice the Irregularly Shaped Surrounding Suburbs,
Opposite the Secure Area Within The Walls

planning of Renaissance and French fortification

of Manila (intramuros) (Fig.12.) and Batangas.

Madrid (Spain). Calocan and Other Itinerary Linear Cities

example is the old town of Jolo (Jolo Island), whose

2.5/ ideal plan towns: in the Philippines there are
no examples of a purely ideal urban structure (such as
radial or star-shaped), but it is quite frequent to find
square grids inside more or less regular polygonal
walls, according to the influences of the ideal town

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4. Main Historical Land Structures

The first Spanish settlements were isolated and
spread over the archipelago, strategically located
on headlands, and they served both commercial and
defensive purposes.
The first Spanish harbours were founded at casual
anchorages where currents had taken the ships, or
when there arose a need for shelter from storms. In
spite of strong opposition from native inhabitants, the
old harbours of Sorsogon and Cebu (Cebu Island),
as well those of Palapag (Samar Island), Jolo, Leyte,
Mactan, and Tandag, Iligan and Panguil on the north
coast of Mindanao Island were conquered, extended
and adapted to the new Spanish trading needs and
strategies.
The indigenous maritime routes within the

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Philippine harbours and the Chinese and Japanese ports

were thus used by the Spanish sailors; they also took
advantage of their commercial relationships with the
their considerable knowledge of the sea and coastlines
and the best maritime passage ways within the islands.
Indigenous shipping, despite its millennial tradition,
survived only on a small scale as the old main harbours
and the maritime trade lines were soon absorbed by the
European companies (mainly Spanish, but also British,
French and from the Low Countries). Their supremacy
increased during the two centuries of European
expansion, imposing a new hierarchy in the Philippine
ports closely related to the sea routes to Europe
and the competition for East Indies goods. Spanish
ships returned to Europe across the Pacific Ocean to
Acapulco harbour in Mexico; then merchandise was

Fig.14. W. Heather, A New Chart of the Sooloo Archipielago

Showing all the Islands and Passages between the Islands of
Borneo, Palawan and Magindanao, 1820. Instituto de Historia y
Cultura Militar, Madrid (Spain)

harbour (instead of across the Indian Ocean and Cape

L'Agulhas, as the Portuguese did).

Fig.15. Juan Luis de Acosta, Plano del valle de Cagayan, 1720.

Archivo General de Indias, Seville (Spain)

Port cities gradually conformed to a strategic

network, where each piece was designed to play a
specific role in the Spanish strategy of sea power.
In this context the concepts of site and situation are
crucial. Site responds to the suitability of individual
locations to serve as ports based on topography and
facilities; situation refers to their location in relation to
centres of production and consumption, trade routes,
and other ports and subjects of maritime interest such
Following both concepts, on the islands that were
scarcely inhabited or really hostile, isolated sites
were founded at the main natural harbours (or at the
few native ones), linked to the main maritime trading
routes, but there was hardly any inland connection; the
result was a fragmented colonisation and a lack of land
routes (Mindanao and Jolo Islands).
The situation of the older towns along the main
land routes depended formerly on the distances within
staging posts about two or three leagues-, and also on
the topography and the understanding of the natural

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risks. Some of them, where secondary routes met,

became large municipalities thus increasing the main
road network.
The importance of some of these agricultural inland
towns grew as the military control of the territories
became an essential aim to safeguard Spanish interests
and the population against foreign attacks. Since
the beginning of the 17th century the Spanish Army
chose some strategical points where garrisons were
quartered. As a consequence the main agricultural
centres (Tarlac, Bambang, Ibung) received hundreds
of extra inhabitants, and the old trade routes turned
into itineraries that facilitated military manoeuvres: the
main ones were Manila-Tarlac and Lapo-Bangui on
The telegraph lines also run along these routes.
In the 1890s the Manila-Dagupan railroad connected
the capital city of Manila with the main inner market
in the province of Pangasinan the main sugar cane
producer. The railroad stations also increased the
growth and prosperity of the cities established there.
Main sites such as harbours and cities were thus

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Fig.16. Pedro Andrs Burriel, Plano de la Isla de Samar, 1856.

Instituto de Historia y Cultura Militar, Madrid (Spain). The map
shows the main roads and cities

gradually linked through a dense network of roads

and navigable rivers and canals. Their supply lines
were assured through the terrestrial connections with
the main agricultural areas (Batangas, Laguna) which
were at the end of the land routes, as well as through
maritime trade lines with the main cattle-raising area
located on the Visayas Islands.
In the case of the ports of Manila and Cavite, the
stones for building breakwaters and jetties were
transported by barges plying along the Pasig River
from the Bay Lagoon; the wood for the shipyards
followed the route Iloco-Cavite, the canvas for the
sails was woven in Ilocos, and the ropes were made of
abac that were mainly collected in the inland
internally improved through the construction of new
entrepts, breakwaters, piers or dry docks.
Other commercial strategies involved also the
manufacturing, transport and the export of some
valuable goods such as tobacco from Cagayan, which
supposed the creation of the vast trading structure
of the Reales Fbricas de Tabaco (Royal Tobacco
Factories) in Manila, Havanna and Seville.
5. Conclusions
collection of ancient maps of the colonial Philippines,
process had two ways of controlling the territories: the

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foundation of sites and the creation of a road network

related to them.
Sites were strategically located on headlands and
in natural bays, and seldom fortified particularly
if on the coast. Depending on the harshness of the
geographic environment and the friendliness of the
natives, they remained as isolated harbours connected
to the main maritime trading routes, or they developed
both external seaborne and inland transport networks,
which extended into a hinterland which provided
essential materials. In these cases the importance of the
concept of situation is greater.
The main urban types for site construction were
those traditionally applied by the Spanish explorers
and conquerors throughout the American territories:
the more or less distorted grid sometimes surrounded
by a defence wall-, and exceptionally the irregularly
shaped cities and even ideal plans. The itinerary linear
type appears as a powerful urban typology in the
Philippines, which has not been recognised until now.
A second conclusion which is still useful in urban
planning and design, is that the Spanish towns were
designed to take advantage of geographical and
climatic conditions, as well as to reduce the risk of
earthquake damage. As a consequence, settlements
were established near springs or rivers, on windy plains
or promontories. Streets were arranged according
to the prevailing winds, and their width equalled
the height of the buildings to avoid direct solar rays
(Fig.5.). Main squares served as meeting points, being
was also guaranteed through the structure of main and
secondary streets, and a subtle relationship was also
established by the system of back lots and outer plots.
As a third result, the land structures created by
the Spanish over four centuries are evidenced by
superposition of the collection of ancient maps. But old
forgotten paths or plots can still be discerned on aerial
photographs by changes in colour and texture of the
land cover-, and also by the images through remote
sensing which, for instance can show differences in
temperature on the earth's surface.
An accurate analysis of both the historical
documents and those provided by the contemporary
techniques has proved to be a helpful tool in the study
of the cultural heritage of the Philippines and for the
preservation of the memory of its cities and territories.
It will provide the main guidelines to future actions.
Notes
1

Some of the most curious and interesting historical texts are dated
between the 18th century and the early 20th century, and are mainly
the Museo Naval, Madrid (MN), and the Archivo del Palacio
Real, Madrid (APR); they provide varied scopes, and among
them we suggest: Morga, A. de (original 1609, 1997) Sucesos de
Relacin de las Islas Filipinas (Manuscript, MN); Le Gentil de
la Galaisire, G.J. (original 1766, 1964) A Voyage to the Indian

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15

Seas, Manila, Filipiniana Book Guild; Concepcin, Juan de (17881792) Historia General de Filipinas, Manila (APR); lbum de
fotografas de vistas y tipos de Filipinas, (end of the 19th century),

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Acknowledgements
This article is a result of the research "Contributions
of the Spanish cartographers to the international
Franklin Institute, University of Alcal, Spain.

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