Santo Tomas
Philippines · Asia
關於Santo Tomas
Santo Tomas, officially the City of Santo Tomas (Filipino: Lungsod ng Santo Tomas), is a component city in the province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 226,772 people.
Santo Tomas got its name from Spanish for Saint Thomas Aquinas, a Catholic saint whose patronal feast day is celebrated every March 7. It is also the hometown of Philippine Revolution and Philippine–American War hero Miguel Malvar, the last Filipino general to surrender to the Americans.
Santo Tomas was founded in 1666, with Manuel Melo as its first head. Originally, it was composed of a large poblacion. When the Spanish friars arrived, their first and foremost objective was to construct a church near the river to satisfy their inclination for water. Thus, the present site of a Roman Catholic church was chosen near the San Juan River. As years went by, more houses were built around the church. This became the center of the poblacion.
Other groups of houses were scattered all over the area. They were given such odd names as "Kabaong", because of coffin-shaped stones along the road; "Putol" because the trail was cut short by Mount Makiling; "Aptayin", because...
Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.