Pavia is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 32,824 people in 6,553 households. As of 2005, its mayor is Arcadio H. Gorriceta. The municipal church, currently undergoing restoration, is similar to the one in the Italian city of Pavia.[1] As a small town, Pavia covers only 3,804 hectares of prime farmland. The region's Agro-Industrial Center for Western Visayas is 9.6 kilometers north of Iloilo City.
Contents |
History, Geography and Culture
Pavia was established during the Spanish occupation in 1848. It has alternatively been part of Santa Barbara, and an arabal of Jaro. The geography of the town is flat, but its fertile soil makes the town ideal for planting rice, coconuts and fruit trees. The 19th-century Augustinian friars worked in Iloilo and wrote the residents worked primarily as entrepreneurs.
Pavia was officially founded in 1862. Its name probably was derived from a certain Colonel Pavia of the Iloilo Spanish garrison, or from a Spanish corruption of the Hiligaynon word biya-biya, since it was a neglected patch of land and/or from a Spanish governor-general, Manuel Pavia y Lay, Marquis of Novaliches, who became a priest after his tenure from 1853-1854. The Augustinian Order's friars were responsible for the religious education of the natives. The Agustinian Priests from Milan, Italy where the town of Pavia's two rivers Agno and Tignum converges andits Byzantine architecture was depicted similarly based on the Guidelines for the establishments of new settlements under the "Laws of Indies". The original plans from Milan was hand-drawn in ink on fine silk with intricate details of brick work and coral moldings. The relic was handed over by the wife of the Maetro Kapatas' to Rev. Fr. Victor piansay in 1977 and is presently archived in the Diocese of Jaro, Iloilo. Pavia in the province of Milan, Italy is the burial place of Saint Agustine and in 1862, Rev. Fr.Policarpio Minayo built the Byzantine Church in the patronage of Santa Monica, St. Augustine's mother. In 1889 the famous Byzantine architecture was patially completed, designed similarly to the Romanesque style of the Basilica of San Michele Maggiore in Pavia, Italy.
The town's founding fathers 14 years earlier, in 1848 were the 13 large landowners: Marcos Evangelista, Graciano Gonzaga, Constantino Gumban, Vicente Hechanova, Anacleto Hedriana, Jorge Jagolino, Locario Juntanilla, Barbario Maquiling, and the brothers Ramos, Remigio, Leocadio, Gregori and Mariano Maquiling. Of these barangays or villages only Gumban have maintained a dominating political presence in the town for most of the 20th century.[2]
Pavia holds since May 1973, the Carabao-Carroza Race Festival (every May). The Carabao is made the "king" for a day, and the race features carabaos each pulling a bamboo carrosa on a 400 meter course.[3]
It is also famous for "baye-baye," a by-product of rice made from the newly-harvested palay. Its century-old pottery industry especially in Pandac(Pik- Pik Koron) still survives amid flower and bonsai gardens.
Pavia celebrates Halloween festival of the dead called "TIGKARALAG," on October 30, at the Pavia Municipal (Public) Plaza, an inter-barangay Halloween dance drama competition conceived by Cecilia H. Capadosa in 1992.[4][5][6]
Barangays
Pavia is politically subdivided into 18 barangays.
|
|
Radio Station
- DYHP (DYPV) 104.3 The Beat 104.3 FM (MBC, a music FM station owned by MBC and operated by Pavia Broadcasting Service.
References
External links
- Philippine Standard Geographic Code
- 2000 Philippine Census Information
- Official Website
- Iloilo Festivals - The List of Festivals and Fiestas in Iloilo for the Year
- Iloilo Festivals and Events
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
