Baclayon, officially the Municipality of Baclayon (; ), is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Bohol Bohol (), officially the Province of Bohol (; ), is an island province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas Regions of the Philippines, region, consisting of the island itself and 75 minor surrounding islands. It is home to Bohola ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 22,461 people. It is the home town of actor

Cesar Montano Cesar Demontaño Manhilot (born August 1, 1962), known professionally as Cesar Montano (), is a Filipino actor, film producer, film director and aspiring politician. Montano started in show business as a commercial model.Caesar Saloma Caesar Aya-ay Saloma is a professor of the National Institute of Physics (NIP) at the University of the Philippines College of Science and a member of the National Academy of Science and Technology. He previously served as Chancellor of the Unive ...

. The town of Baclayon, Bohol celebrates its feast on December 10, to honor the town patron Immaculate Conception.

History

Baclayon was the first municipality to be established in Bohol by the Spaniards and included originally the areas now made up by the municipalities of Alburquerque,

Balilihan Balilihan, officially the Municipality of Balilihan (; ), is a municipality in the province of Bohol, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 18,694 people. History The place is a panorama of verdant hills, rugged mou ...

, Corella, and Sikatuna. Its original name was Bacayan, from the root word ''bacay'', meaning "detour" in reference to the fact that travellers used to make a detour there around a rocky cliff. In 1595, two

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priests, Juan de Torres and Gabriel Sanchez, arrived in Bohol to convert the local populace to Catholicism. With native help, they built a stone church which is considered one of the oldest stone churches in the Philippines, and marked the beginning of the town. In 1600,

Moros In Greek mythology, Moros /ˈmɔːrɒs/ or Morus /ˈmɔːrəs/ (Ancient Greek: Μόρος means 'doom, fate') is the personified spirit of impending doom, who drives mortals to their deadly fate. It was also said that Moros gave people the abi ...

raided the fledgling settlement, which prompted the Jesuits to relocate their ''residencia'' to

Loboc Loboc, officially the Municipality of Loboc (; ), is a municipality in the province of Bohol, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 17,418 people. Located east of Tagbilaran, Loboc is widely known for its lunch c ...

. In 1717, Baclayon gained status of a parish. In 1742, Tagbilaran was separated from Baclayon, followed by Alburquerque in 1868, Balilihan in 1828, and Corella in 1884.

Geography

Baclayon is from

Tagbilaran Tagbilaran, officially the City of Tagbilaran (; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, component city and capital of the Provinces of the Philippines, province of Bohol, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a popu ...

, the provincial capital. The municipality also has jurisdiction over

Pamilacan Pamilacan is an island barangay in the Philippines, situated south of Bohol island and surrounded by the Bohol Sea (also called Mindanao Sea). It is one of the 17 barangays that compose the municipality of Baclayon. According to the 2015 census, ...

Island.

Barangays

Baclayon is politically subdivided into 17 barangays. Each barangay consists of

purok A ''purok'' () is an informal division within a barangay in the Philippines. While not officially considered a local government unit (LGU), a ''purok'' often serves as a unit for delivering services and administration within a barangay. ''Pur ...

s and some have

sitios A ''sitio'' (Spanish language, Spanish for "site") in the Philippines is a territorial enclave that forms part of a barangay. Typically rural, a ''sitios location is usually far from the center of the barangay itself and could be its own bar ...

Climate

Demographics

Economy

Tourism

Baclayon is known for its historic

Catholic church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, declared a National Cultural Treasure in 1995 because it is considered the best preserved of its kind in the region. Its first structure was built in 1595, but the current building is from 1724 and is of Spanish Colonial architecture. The church includes a small museum, with relics dating back to the early 16th century, and adjoining high bell tower. Nearby are centuries-old stone buildings like the ''hermita'', and elementary school, as well as the historic public marketplace, a Spanish-era building with giant stone columns supporting the roof. In 2013, the church and bell tower were severely damaged by the 2013 Bohol earthquake. There are 67 or more Spanish colonial ancestral houses in the municipality, many of them along the main road. The houses, in various stages of preservation or neglect, show Spanish-Filipino wooden craftsmanship and styling, some of which were constructed as early as 1853. They are often utilized for cultural shows and tours, festivals and fiestas, as well as some having been turned into inns. The island of

is a tourist destination for dolphin- and whale-watching.

References

Sources

External links

Philippine Standard Geographic Code The Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC) is a systematic classification and coding for geographic areas in the Philippines. It classifies areas based on the country's four levels of administrative divisions: regions, provinces, municipalities ...

br>Municipality of Baclayon
{{Authority control Municipalities of Bohol 1595 establishments in the Spanish Empire Populated places established in 1595