Santa Cruz is a district in the northern part of the City of Manila, Philippines, located on the right bank of the Pasig River near its mouth, bordered by the districts of Tondo,

Binondo Binondo () is a district in Manila and is referred to as the city's Chinatown. Its influence extends beyond to the places of Quiapo, Santa Cruz, San Nicolas and Tondo. It is the oldest Chinatown in the world, established in 1594 by the ...

, Quiapo, and Sampaloc, as well as the areas of Grace Park and Barrio San Jose in Caloocan and the district of La Loma in Quezon City. The district belongs to the 3rd congressional district of Manila.

History

Spanish colonial era

Prior to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors to the Philippine Islands, the district of Santa Cruz was partly a marshland, patches of greeneries, orchards and partly rice fields. A Spanish expedition in 1581 claimed the territory and awarded to the Society of Jesus whose members are known as ' Jesuits'. The Jesuits built the first Roman Catholic church in the area where the present Santa Cruz Parish stands on June 20, 1619. The Jesuits enshrined the image of the

Our Lady of The Pillar Our Lady of the Pillar ( es, Nuestra Señora del Pilar) is the name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the context of the traditional belief that Mary, while living in Jerusalem, supernaturally appeared to the Apostle James the Greater in AD 4 ...

in 1643 to serve the pre-dominantly

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

residents in the area. The image drew a lot of devotees and a popular cult grew around it. On June 24, 1784,

King Carlos III it, Carlo Sebastiano di Borbone e Farnese , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Philip V of Spain , mother = Elisabeth Farnese , birth_date = 20 January 1716 , birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Spain , death_dat ...

of Spain gave the deeds to about of land that was part of the Hacienda de Mayhaligue to the San Lazaro Hospital which served as a caring home for lepers in Manila at that time. At the Santa Cruz Parish, a small park was built that linked the area into the headquarters of the Spanish cavalry, the building that once was the Colegio de San Ildefonso, operated by the Jesuits. The district in the Spanish times also had a slaughter house and a meat market and up north was the Chinese cemetery. The Franciscan fathers were given the responsibility to care for the lepers of the city and specifically the San Lazaro Hospital. Father

Felix Huerta Felix Huerta, O.F.M., was a Spanish Franciscan friar, Catholic priest, scholar and missionary to the Philippines during the 19th century, when it was still a colony of Spain. He is best known for authoring a history of local Catholic parishes which ...

developed San Lazaro into a refuge for the afflicted and it became a famous home for those afflicted in the north side of the Pasig River.

World War II

During World War II, the Japanese occupational forces, caught unaware of the fast approaching liberation by the combined American & Filipino soldiers from the north, abandoned in 1945 the northern banks of the Pasig River including Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz and much of the northern portions of Manila were spared from the artillery bombardment and to date, a number of pre-World War II buildings and houses still stand in Santa Cruz. When the Philippine republic was finally established in July 1946, the San Lazaro Hospital complex became the head office of the country’s Department of Health.

Notable buildings

Santa Cruz Church

The first Santa Cruz Church was built when the Arrabal (Suburb) of Santa Cruz was established by the Jesuits in the early 1600s. The church had undergone many repairs and reconstruction, with the last reconstruction done in the 1950s. Today, the church architecture employs a California

Spanish Mission style The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...

facade silhouette with the usual Filipino (Asian-Hispanic mix)

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

ornamentation. The church facade is topped with an effigy statue of Our Lady of the Pillar, the patroness of the church whose feast happens every third Sunday of October and on the 12th day of October.

Cemeteries

Santa Cruz is home to Manila's oldest cemeteries located in the district's northern section namely,

La Loma Cemetery The La Loma Catholic Cemetery (Spanish: ''Campo Santo de La Loma'') was opened in 1884 and is largely located in Caloocan, Metro Manila. A portion of the southern part of the cemetery is located in Manila. The La Loma Cemetery is the oldest ceme ...

, the

Manila Chinese Cemetery The Manila Chinese Cemetery (; es, Cementerío para chinos) is the second oldest cemetery in Manila after La Loma Cemetery. The cemetery includes Christian, Buddhist and Taoist burials. The present-day cemetery is a vaguely trapezoidal area of a ...

, and the city's biggest, the Manila North Cemetery.

Main thoroughfares

Rizal Avenue is the main thoroughfare in the district. The district is also accessible via the following roads: *

Recto Avenue Claro M. Recto Avenue, more popularly known as simply Recto Avenue, is the principal commercial thoroughfare in north-central Manila, Philippines. It spans seven districts just north of the Pasig River in what is generally considered Manila's o ...

* Tayuman Street *

Blumentritt Road Blumentritt Road is a major road in Manila, Philippines. It runs through the border of the City of Manila with Quezon City from Rizal Avenue in Santa Cruz district to G. Tuazon Street in Sampaloc district. The road also forms the southern bounda ...

Stations of the LRT Line 1 located in Santa Cruz are Carriedo (shared with Quiapo), Doroteo Jose, Bambang, Tayuman and Blumentritt (shared with Tondo). The

Philippine National Railways The Philippine National Railways (PNR) ( fil, Pambansang Daang-Bakal ng Pilipinas and es, Ferrocarril Nacional de Filipinas) is a state-owned railway company in the Philippines which operates one commuter rail service between Metro Manila an ...

has a station in Blumentritt. Jeepneys coming from Baclaran, Pasay, Valenzuela, Novaliches and Caloocan pass through Rizal Avenue.

Barangays

Santa Cruz has 82 barangays.

Gallery

Religious buildings

File:MetroManila,Manilajf9999 22.JPG, Santa Cruz Church File:09690jfRoads Rizal Avenue Santa Cruz Schools Churches Landmarksfvf 07.JPG, Espiritu Santo Parish Church File:04286jfSan Roque Manila Parish Church Blumentritt Rizal Avenuefvf 03.jpg, San Roque Church File:02221jfKnox United Methodist Church Bethel School Santa Cruz Manilafvf 09.jpg, Bethel Knox United Methodist Church

Civic institutions

File:Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center.JPG, Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center File:Chinese General Hospital 1.JPG, Chinese General Hospital File:141Manila North Cemetery North Green Park 10.jpg, Manila North Cemetery File:Chinese Cemetery - south gate - panoramio.jpg, Chinese Cemetery

Commercial establishments

File:Arch of Goodwill at Plaza Santa Cruz, Chinatown, Manila, Philippines - 20120111.jpg,

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

(Plaza Santa Cruz), Third Welcome Gate (Arch of Goodwill) to Ongpin Street towards Binondo File:Ongpinjf.JPG, Ongpin Commercial Center File:Bpistacruzjf.JPG, Bank of the Philippine Islands at Don Román Santos Building, a neo-classical, Graeco-Roman structure at Plaza Goiti (now Plaza Lacson) File:MetroManila,Manilajf9999 09.JPG, Carriedo Street with Plaza Lacson in the background File:Avenida-D.JPG, Commercial Buildings in Rizal Avenue File:San Lazaro Manila2.jpg, San Lazaro Tourism and Business Park (formerly the San Lázaro Racetrack) File:Capitan Pepe Building.JPG, Capitan Pepe Building

Residences

File:Bahay na bato house in Santa Cruz, Manila.JPG, Bahay na bato house in Santa Cruz, Manila File:Bahay na bato apartments in Santa Cruz, Manila.JPG, Bahay na bato apartments in Santa Cruz, Manila File:Period architecture in Santa Cruz, Manila.JPG, Period architecture in Santa Cruz, Manila File:Avenida-C.JPG, Bahay na Bato House in Bambang Rizal Avenue

Sub-districts

Barangays Zone 29: Barangays 297, 298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, and 305 Zone 31: Barangays 310, 311, 312, 313, and 314 Zone 32: Barangays 315, 316, 317, 318, 319, 320, 321, 322, 323, 324, and 325 Zone 33: Barangays 326, 327, 328, 329, 330, 331, 332, 334, and 335 Zone 34: Barangays 336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, and 343 Zone 35: Barangays 344, 345, 346, 347, 348 349, 350, 351, and 352 Zone 36: Barangays 353, 354, 355, 356, 357, 358, 359, 360, 361, and 362 Zone 37: Barangays 363, 364, 365, 366, 367, 368, 369, 370, 371, and 372 Zone 38: Barangays 373, 374, 375, 376, 377, 378, 379, 380, 381, and 382 Santa Cruz has two postal codes corresponding to its two sub-districts: 1014 for Santa Cruz North and 1003 for Santa Cruz South.

References

External links

* * *https://brgy.info/zipcodes/1014_manila.php *https://brgy.info/zipcodes/1003_manila.php {{Metro Manila populated places Districts of Manila 1619 establishments in the Spanish Empire Populated places established in 1619