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Iloilo City is the regional center of Western Visayas, set on the southeastern coast of Panay across a narrow strait from the island of Guimaras. With about 474,000 people in 2024, it is the most populous city of the region, made up of former towns such as Jaro, Molo, La Paz and Arevalo.
The Spanish settled here in 1566, making it their second colonial center in the Philippines after Cebu, and a sugar boom later filled the city with grand ancestral houses. Around 1900 Iloilo was the second city of the islands and was known as the Queen City of the South, and today it is a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy famous for La Paz batchoy and pancit Molo.
Visitors come for the churches and plazas of Jaro and Molo, the old commercial street of Calle Real and the mansions of sugar families. The long river esplanade, the customs house museum and the ruins of an old Spanish fort fill out a stay, and every January the Dinagyang Festival brings huge crowds of dancers into the streets.
Jaro Cathedral in Iloilo City is the seat of the Archdiocese of Jaro and the National Shrine of Our Lady of Candles, built in 1869-1874. The image of the Candelaria on its facade was crowned in person by Pope John Paul II in 1981, the first Marian image in Asia to be so honored.
The Jaro Belfry in Iloilo City is a free-standing bell tower across the plaza from Jaro Cathedral, first built in 1744 and the oldest belfry in the Visayas. Damaged by earthquakes in 1787, 1868 and 1948, it was restored in 2022 and rang its bells again for the first time in 74 years.
Molo Church in Iloilo City is a neo-Gothic stone church dedicated to Saint Anne, completed in 1888 and declared a national landmark in 1992. Known as the women's church, it has two rows of sixteen female saints inside, and it is the only Gothic church in the country outside Metro Manila.
Jaro Plaza in Iloilo City, officially Graciano Lopez Jaena Park, is the historic town square of the Jaro district between the cathedral and its belfry. Known in the 1930s as one of the most beautiful plazas on Panay, it was restored in the 2020s and keeps its old bandstand and war memorial.
Calle Real is the old commercial street of the City Proper in Iloilo City, lined with rows of Beaux-Arts, neoclassical and Art Deco buildings now on the UNESCO tentative list. It was home to Hoskyn's, the first department store in the Philippines, opened in 1877, and to the Cine Palace of 1928.
The Lopez Heritage House in Iloilo City, known as Nelly Garden, is a Beaux-Arts mansion in Jaro built in 1928 by the sugar planter Don Vicente Lopez and named after his eldest daughter. Called the Queen of Heritage Houses in Iloilo, it stands in grounds of 4 hectares open for tours.
The Molo Mansion in Iloilo City, formally the Yusay-Consing Ancestral House, is a neoclassical house with Art Deco touches built in 1926 in front of Molo Plaza and Molo Church. Bought by the SM Group in 2014, it now holds shops selling local products and delicacies, along with cafes.
Casa Real de Iloilo is the old provincial capitol of Iloilo, built in 1869 and considered the first provincial capitol building in the Philippines. Here the civil government of Iloilo was inaugurated in 1901, and the restored building now hosts government functions and cultural events.
The Iloilo River Esplanade in Iloilo City is a linear park 9.29 kilometers long on both banks of the Iloilo River, the longest in the Philippines. Designed by Paulo Alcazaren and opened in 2012, it has 13 sections linked by 11 bridges and is planted with many species of mangroves.
The Iloilo Customs House on Muelle Loney Street in Iloilo City is a neoclassical building of 1916 with a central tower, designed by the American architect Ralph Harrington Doane. Since January 2023 its ground floor has held the Museum of Philippine Maritime History of the NHCP.
Museo Iloilo is a provincial museum near the Iloilo Provincial Capitol in Iloilo City, built in 1971 as the first government-sponsored museum in the Philippines outside Metro Manila. It shows stone-age and Chinese trade pottery, Spanish-era religious sculpture, fossils and jewelry.
Fort San Pedro in Iloilo City was a Spanish fort first built of wood in 1602 by Pedro Bravo de Acuna and rebuilt in stone after a Dutch attack in 1616. Destroyed by bombing in 1945, its site by the port was declared an Important Cultural Property in 2016 and is set to be restored.
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Western Visayas, Philippines
Calabarzon, Philippines
National Capital Region, Philippines
Davao Region, Philippines
Eastern Visayas, Philippines
Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines
Calabarzon, Philippines
National Capital Region, Philippines
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