Architecture

• Spanish colonial houses


  • As wide as a street block
  • No fence, façade directly rises from the edge of the street
  • Walls resemble fortresses due to uprisings
• Walls of Spanish colonial houses

  Made of stone, lime, and adobe to resist frequent earthquakes
• Upper floor of Spanish colonial houses

  Made of hardwood, with sliding capiz panel windows
• Roof of Spanish colonial houses

  Originally made of tiles, later required by law to be galvanized iron for earthquake safety
• Fine houses built by wealthy Filipinos in the 19th century

  • Rizal house in Calamba, Laguna
  • Luna house in Badoc, Ilocos Norte
• Characteristics of fine houses built by wealthy Filipinos in the 19th century

  • Solid stone foundations or brick lower walls
  • Overhanging, wooden upper story with balustrades and kapis shell sliding windows
  • Tiled roof
• Commercial structures that developed during the latter part of the Spanish period

  • Derivation of the traditional Bahay Kubo with sturdier materials
  • Continued the principle of open ventilation and elevated apartments
• Antillian architecture brought by the Spaniards in 1571

  Transposed via Acapulco, Mexico into a uniquely Filipino style
• Best preserved colonial churches

  • In Ilocos Region, Laguna, Batangas, Panay, Cebu and Bohol
• Early colonial churches


  Constructed with bamboo and nipa, later replaced by massive structures that took decades to complete
• Schools and hospitals during the Spanish period

  Usually attached to the church, eventually developed their own tropical baroque style of architecture