Small Batangas town moves to relive history

SAN NICOLAS, Batangas – This small town is a fifth-class municipality located along Taal Lake where Pansipit River runs from Balayan Bay to Taal Lake. Its immediate proximity to Taal Volcano earned it the title “gateway to Taal Volcano” and a larger area of the volcano island is made part of the town.

But although the town of San Nicolas was made into a municipality only in 1955, San Nicolas was originally the site of the old town of Taal, which was established in 1570 under Frey Agustin Albuquerque, barely 50 years after the arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippines. Hence, San Nicolas was always referred to as the Lumang Taal.

The first Taal Church was built in San Nicolas in 1575 by Frey Diego de Espinar but was destroyed in 1754 due to the eruption of Taal Volcano, which also led to the transfer of the town to its new and present site.

Through the initiative of the parish priest of San Nicolas, Fr. Glenn Cantos, the ruins of the old Taal Church in San Nicolas were again cleared and refurbished. The ruins, which were for a long time unnoticed by tourists and even by the residents, reveal a relatively big church and one of the first churches built in the Philippines by the Spaniards.

A parish heritage commission was organized to plan out activities to revive and develop the ruins and remind the residents of the old glory that the area enjoyed even before the coming of the Spaniards.

Two years ago, a team from the University of the Philippines’ Archaeological Studies Program, with the assistance of the Archaeology Division of the National Museum and funded by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, conducted a survey and excavation of the area, and discovered artifacts, showing an advanced community even before the coming of the Spaniards and the existence of trade with other Asian countries.

Historical accounts show that Pansipit River was then the only access by water from China Sea to the other parts of Batangas through Taal Lake, and the area of San Nicolas, located at its mouth, became a center of trade.

Last March 30, the parish relived the old glory of Taal in its old site, namely San Nicolas, by putting up a cross at the altar portion of the ruins, primarily to again sanctify the place and to remind the residents of San Nicolas of the glory of its ancient past.

(The author is the chairman of the San Nicolas Parish Heritage Commission.)