Monday, December 13, 2010

Historic Sites around Balibago

Bale Herencia

was built in 1860 and is situated in Lakandula Street corner Santo Rosario Street. It is a picturesque house with the unsavory reputation of having been built for the mistress of a parish priest. The current owners now use it as a banquet hall.

Bayanihan Park

(formerly Astro Park) is now home to a year-round mini-amusement park and it is an ideal spot for sports and recreational activities having basketball and volleyball courts and huge space for jogging and other recreational activities. This is where the famous and historical "Salakot Arch" is now located.

Camalig

was built in 1840 by Don Ciriaco de Miranda, the first gobernadorcillo of Angeles, and was used as a grain storehouse along Santo Rosario Street. It was restored in 1980 by Armando L. Nepomuceno and is now the site of Armando's Pizza and Camalig Restaurant.

Fort Stotsenburg

is named after Colonel John M. Stotsenburg, a captain of the 6th U.S. Cavalry, was the location of the permanent quarters of the American forces in Sapang Bato, Angeles. It is also known as the "Parade Ground," which served as a venue for many important celebrations by the Americans before the Philippine-American Military Bases Agreement ended in 1991.

Founders' Residence (Bale Matua)

is located at the heart of Santo Rosario, is the oldest building in the city. It was built in 1824 by the city founder, Don Ángel Pantaleón de Miranda, and his wife, Dona Rosalia de Jesus, and was inherited by their only daughter, Dona Juana de Miranda de Henson. This house, which is made of high stone and an ornate gate, nostalgically symbolizes the glorious past of Angeles amidst the overwhelming onslaughts of modernization.

Holy Family Academy Building

was once a convent and was served as a military hospital of the U.S. Army in 1900. It was later used as troop barracks, officers' quarters and arsenal by the Japanese Imperial Military Forces in 1942.

Holy Rosary Church (Santo Rosario Church)

was constructed from 1877 to 1896 by the "Polo y Servicio" labor system, a kind of forced labor imposed on Filipino peasants by the Spanish colonial government. It was used as a military hospital by the U.S. Army from August 1899 to December 1900. Its backyard was the execution ground to the Spanish forces in shooting down Filipino rebels and suspects.

Juan D. Nepomuceno's Center

for Kapampangan Studies houses a library, museum of archives and gallery, research center and theater, put up by the Holy Angel University in 2002 to preserve, study and promote Kapampangan history and culture.

Lily Hill

was a strategic observation post for monitoring Japanese movement in World War II. Remains of Japanese aircraft were found here at the end of the war. Along this hill can now be found Lily Hill Duty Free Store.

Old Pamintuan Residence

was served as the seat of government of the First Philippine Republic under General Emilio Aguinaldo from May to July 1899 and the Central Headquarter for Major General Arthur MacArthur, Jr., the father of General Douglas MacArthur. It now houses the Central Bank of the Philippines in Central Luzon.

Post Office Building (Deposito)

is a building that was constructed in 1899 for the purpose of depositing religious statues and carriages of the Catholic Church, hence the name Deposito. It was also used as the headquarter of the 11th Film Exchange U.S. Army from 1946 to 1947 and was then used as a jailhouse for recalcitrant U.S. troops during the Philippine-American War. On February 6, 1967, the Angeles City Post Office moved to this building. It is now the site of Angeles Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Center.

Salakot Arch

is a landmark of Angeles City. From 1902 to 1979, Clark remained a U.S. territory, guaranteed by the Military Bases Agreement in 1947. In 1978, the Philippines, under the dispensation of the former President Ferdinand Marcos, and the U.S. finally agreed to establish Philippine sovereignty over the U.S. bases and thus the Clark Air Base Command (CABCOM) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines came into being, following the signing of a revised Military Bases Agreement on January 7, 1979. To commemorate this unprecendented and bold event, the government constructed a special structure based upon the design of a salakot or native hat, which soon became a widely recognized symbol of this renewed Filipino spirit from the long and archaic tradition of Philippine-American relations and the weaning away from it. Angeles will soon see and realize its full potential as a dynamic might on its own without the American base after the onslaught of Pinatubo volcano.

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