Taal Basilica: Exploring a Heritage Town in Batangas

After our visit to Anilao to take the kids snorekeling, we decided to do a side trip to the heritage town of Taal. We awanted to show our kids a Spanish church, town plaza, bahay-na-bato, and cobblestone streets. My son Guijo’s Araling Panlipunan class had a module on how the Spanish colonial government formed towns, built churches, and introduced new architecture. I felt Guijo needed to see in real life what he was learning online! It’s one thing to read about a stone church and to actually see a massive and impressive one - St. Martin of Tours Basilica in Taal is as big as it gets! Supposedly the largest in the Philippines and in Asia!

They did say “wow” when they saw the basilica atop a hill. As we drove into the center of Taal, the massive stone structure entered our field of vision and asserted its presence in a very awe-inspiring fashion. It was huge and imposing, causing one to look up, not only because of it's size, but also because of its commanding position on high ground. It is as impressive inside, as it is outside. The nave seemed to dwarf us, and I imagined a bride walking down such a long aisle would need endurance to make it to the altar. I wanted our kids to have a sense of how physical structures project power.

Down the stone steps, from the church to the public plaza across, through the cobblestone streets, was a real-life demonstration of my son's Araling Panlipunan lesson on “Lipunan sa Ilalim ng Pamahalaang Kolonyal”. Growing up in a condo has deprived my kids of certain things like exposure to (and an intuitive undertanding of) the church-plaza complex as a codifying center of Philippine social life under Spanish colonial rule, and beyond.

Irms

We parked away from the church so we could walk through the streets and give our kids a sense of how other structures are positioned in relation to the church, what was across, and around. We got to see the Escuela Pia (now turned into the Taal Cultural Center), and the municipal government building, the town plaza, and many bahay-na-bato heritage houses. 

I can't say for sure if our kids will remember all the things we are exposing them too. When I was growing up, any knowledge of history I learned in school was supplemented by things I got from tv shows, movies, newspaper and magazine articles, field trips, family weddings etc. - for some reason, I knew about town plazas, stone churches, and bahay-na-bato naturally and intuitively - without effort.  Such is not the case for my kids. I realize that they are growing up in a home without a newspaper subscription, and without local tv shows, and with the covid lockdown, we haven't attended any weddings, or gone to church, or seen any movies.  I just have to take my cue from lessons in school, and keep retracing steps taken with my parents when I was a kid. I hope they will remember the visit to Taal.