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Makati is the financial heart of the Philippines, a compact city in Metro Manila on the south bank of the Pasig River. About 310,000 people lived here in 2024, but its daytime population swells to more than three million as workers pour into the towers of its central business district.
The old town of San Pedro de Macati grew around a Jesuit church built in 1620 on a hill above the river, and the Augustinian sanctuary at Guadalupe dates back to 1601. After the Second World War the Ayala family turned their hacienda and the runways of the old Nielson airport into a planned business district, and today Makati has the largest skyline in the country.
Visitors come for the gardens of the Ayala Triangle, the Ayala Museum and the parks and malls of the Ayala Center. The historic district of Poblacion keeps its old church and plaza along with lively bars and restaurants, while Rockwell and the new Circuit Makati show the city's growth along the river.
Saints Peter and Paul Parish Church in Makati Poblacion is the mother church of the city, its first stone church finished in 1620 by the Jesuits on a hill called Buenavista. Plaza Cristo Rey in front was once the town cemetery, and the church was made an Important Cultural Property in 2023.
Nuestra Señora de Gracia Church in Makati, known as Guadalupe Church, is a Baroque church on a hill above the Pasig River whose Augustinian sanctuary was founded in 1601. Pilgrims of the galleon trade from Spain and Mexico came by river to honor its Virgin of Guadalupe from the 1630s.
Poblacion is the historic center of Makati and the first settlement of the old town of San Pedro de Macati, set on the Pasig River. It is the seat of the city government and is known for its culture and history as well as its entertainment, with many bars and restaurants on its streets.
The Nielson Tower in the Ayala Triangle in Makati is the old control tower of Nielson Field, the airport that served Manila before the war and closed in 1948. Renovated in 1996, it held the Filipinas Heritage Library and since 2014 it has been home to a fine dining restaurant called Blackbird.
The Ayala Triangle Gardens is a park of 2 hectares in the middle of the Makati business district, opened in 2009 on land that was once Nielson Field, the prewar airport of Manila. Modeled on Hyde Park, it is filled with palms and acacias and is famous at Christmas for its light-and-sound show.
The Ayala Museum in Makati was founded in 1967 at the wish of the painter Fernando Zobel and shows archaeology, ethnography, fine arts and Philippine history. Its six-story building of granite and glass at Greenbelt opened in 2004 and reopened in December 2021 after a two-year renovation.
Washington SyCip Park is a public park in Legazpi Village in Makati, near the Greenbelt mall, opened in 2006 and named after the Filipino accountant and banker Washington SyCip. Planted with many native tropical trees and plants, it has gazebos and is open daily from 6 am to 10 pm.
Greenbelt in the Ayala Center in Makati is a shopping complex of five sections built around a tropical park, which began in the 1970s as an open space with an aviary called Greenbelt Junction. The Santo Niño de Paz Chapel has stood at the center of the garden since 1983, among cafes and boutiques.
The Makati Central Business District is the financial heart of the Philippines, home to many of the skyscrapers of Metro Manila and part of a city skyline of 432 high-rises. Privately owned and built up by the Ayala family from the 1950s, it spans Bel-Air, San Antonio, San Lorenzo and Urdaneta.
Ayala Avenue in Makati is the main street of the business district, nicknamed the Wall Street of the Philippines for its banks and corporate towers. Part of it follows the old main runway of Nielson Field, which closed in 1948, and the modern avenue was completed by Ayala in the mid-1950s.
Rockwell Center is a high-end neighborhood of 15.5 hectares in Makati beside the Pasig River, built since 1998 on the site of a thermal power plant that closed in 1994. Planned with the firms SOM and Palafox, it has office and residential towers around its centerpiece, the Power Plant Mall of 2000.
Circuit Makati is a new riverfront district of 21 hectares in Makati, built by Ayala Land on the site of Santa Ana Park, an Art Deco horse racetrack that operated from 1937 to 2008. It is planned as the city's entertainment hub, with a theater, a mall, offices, a football turf and a skate park.
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National Capital Region, Philippines
National Capital Region, Philippines
National Capital Region, Philippines
Calabarzon, Philippines
Western Visayas, Philippines
Davao Region, Philippines
Eastern Visayas, Philippines
Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines
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