Silay: The Paris of Negros

For this week’s edition of our continuing series on Philippine plazas we head back to the Visayas, to a place known as the Paris of Negros. Silay City is the heritage capital of the province. It is blessed with numerous heritage homes and commercial buildings from the Spanish and American eras. What is also distinctive is its large central plaza, which serves as foreground to Silay’s elegant San Diego Pro-Cathedral.

The Silay Plaza, at the center of the city, is reached within minutes from the province’s modern airport. Before the circumferential road was completed, one had to pass through Silay proper to head to points south, like the capital Bacolod, or north to the city to Magalona or Victorias.

The plaza is about 1.6 hectares in area and is bounded by Rizal Street, which is the main street) and until recently also the highway connecting points north and south).

On the Zamora Street side, to the north of the plaza, is the San Diego Pro-Cathedral and the City Hall complex. Zulueta Street to the south has the Silay North Elementary School and finally, Gamboa Street to the west of the plaza is host to a heritage structure that houses the Sangguniang Panglungsod Building (City Government).

The origins of Silay as a settlement were based, like may other Philippine settlements, on livelihood from the sea, or in this case from clams. The larger area was also an encomienda granted to a Spanish military officer. Bacolod, of course, was the main settlement and Silay’s growth followed the growth of the capital. Everyone knows too of the economic impact of sugar to the province and the region.  By 1760, Silay became a pueblo or town, and in another 100 years it turned into a leading sugar-producer mainly because of a modern mill built by the ex-pat Yves Leopold Germain Gaston.

The wealth from sugar fueled the town’s growth also in terms of culture and the arts. Much of this was housed literally in the heritage homes of the rich. Today, these structures can be visited for a glimpse into their storied pasts. Most popular of these is the Balay Negrense, the mansion of the sugar baron Gaston. Many visitors take guided tours of this and other mansions plus a stroll down the main street where there are prime examples of architecture in the Art Deco style.

The structures that define the city’s plaza are also worth a visit. The San Diego Pro-Cathedral is the main landmark. Its large dome cuts a striking silhouette. It is the only church in the province with a dome over the central crossing or transept.

The parish of Silay was established in the late 18th century. Its first church structure was a simple one of was built of light materials. A century later a large structure of stone was planned but could not be fully completed because of the revolution.

In the American period, an even grander structure was planned to reflect the town’s affluence. Don Jose Ledesma, a wealthy resident, commissioned the Italian architect Lucio Bernasconi to design the church. Bernasconi modeled the church after churches in his native Italy. The plan is a traditional Latin cross with the huge cupola 40 meters above it. Work started in 1925 and the church was completed two years later.

The church became a regional landmark after that and has since helped put Silay on the heritage and architectural map. In 1994 the church was declared a Pro-Cathedral, the second such cathedral after the San Miguel in Manila.

The other structures around the plaza are a mix of Spanish, American and Post-independence era buildings. The City Hall is obviously from the 1950s, as are some of the structures that were built inside the plaza. The El Ideal Bakery at the corner nearby is a Negros landmark and the place to buy pasalubong before flying home.

The Silay Plaza, in fact, has undergone changes many provincial plazas have been subjected to in the last few decades, including incremental addition of odd buildings here and there. These are well-intentioned but the structures eat up the original open space provided by the plaza.

There is the multi-purpose structure that is now de-riguer in provincial and city plazas. The one in Silay is huge and I am ambivalent about this type of structure. On hot days they provide shaded usable space for activity and protection. At least in Silay’s case, the footprint of the covered structure is not the entire space of the plaza (as we will see in future articles).

The plaza evolved into a grand space at the turn of the century. The completion of the church in 1927 also spurred the development of the space, which included a bandstand, formal gardens and ponds. With the 1960s came a makeover. Everyone wanted to improve their plazas and parks, as Manila had done with Rizal Park. Most of what is seen in Silay plaza, in terms of paving patterns and planter geometries, appears to be from this era.

All in all, I would give Silay Plaza a rating of 8. It retains most of the space it was blessed with (notwithstanding the covered court) and the heritage structures that define it are still mostly intact.

With the completion of the circumferential road connecting the airport and Bacolod City to destinations north, the city would benefit from reduced truck and bus traffic on Rizal Street. This would give a chance for the city to re-configure its central heritage core to be more pedestrian and visitor friendly. Much can also be done to rationalize the plaza spaces and detailing of paved areas as well as some trimming and minor makeovers landscape design-wise. I look forward to this and to Silay shining through much like Vigan in the North, but with a French Negrense flavor.

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Feedback is welcome. Please email the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.