page_title: Iloilo City
hierarchical_section_title: Iloilo City
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Iloilo showing the location of Iloilo City
context_page_description: Iloilo City, officially the City of Iloilo, is a 1st class highly urbanized city on Panay Island in Western Visayas, Philippines. It is the capital city of the province of Iloilo where it is geographically situated but, in terms of government and administration, it is politically independent. In addition, it is the center of the Iloilo-Guimaras Metropolitan Area, as well as the regional center and primate city of the Western Visayas region. In the 2015 census, Iloilo City had a population of 447,992 inhabitants, with a 1.02% population annual growth rate. For the metropolitan area, the total population is 946,146 inhabitants.
  Iloilo City is a conglomeration of former towns, which are now the geo-political districts consisting of: Villa Arevalo, Iloilo City Proper, Jaro, La Paz, Mandurriao and Molo. The district of Lapuz, a former part of La Paz, was declared a separate district in 2008.
  It was founded in 1566 when the Spaniards established a settlement area between the towns of Oton and the city's present district of La Villa Rica de Arevalo as the second Spanish colonial center after Cebu in the Philippine islands.
context_section_description: Iloilo City, officially the City of Iloilo (Spanish: Ciudad de Iloílo; Hiligaynon (Ilonggo): Syudad/Dakbanwa sang Iloilo; Tagalog: Lungsod ng Iloilo), is a 1st class highly urbanized city on Panay Island in Western Visayas (Region VI), Philippines. It is the capital city of the province of Iloilo where it is geographically situated but, in terms of government and administration, it is politically independent. In addition, it is the center of the Iloilo-Guimaras Metropolitan Area, as well as the regional center and primate city of the Western Visayas region. In the 2015 census, Iloilo City had a population of 447,992 inhabitants, with a 1.02% population annual growth rate. For the metropolitan area, the total population is 946,146 inhabitants.
  Iloilo City is a conglomeration of former towns, which are now the geo-political districts consisting of: Villa Arevalo, Iloilo City Proper, Jaro (an independent city before), La Paz, Mandurriao and Molo. The district of Lapuz, a former part of La Paz, was declared a separate district in 2008.
  It was founded in 1566 when the Spaniards established a settlement area between the towns of Oton and the city's present district of La Villa Rica de Arevalo (Villa de Arevalo) as the second Spanish colonial center after Cebu in the Philippine islands. Due to marauding Moros, the Spaniards moved the capital from Oton eastward and founded La Villa Rica de Arevalo, the first Spanish named town in the Philippine islands. Attacks of pirate Moros and the English and Dutch privateers again resulted for the colonial government in the Panay island to further move eastward and eventually built a Spanish fortress and founded the settlement of La Punta (Yloylo) at the mouth of Iloilo River (Jaro River). During the revolution of the late 1800s, the city was given the honorific title of "La Muy Leal y Noble Ciudad" ("The Most Loyal and Noble City") by the Queen Regent of Spain Maria Christina through the loyalty of its citizens to the Spanish crown, the second city to received a royal title in the country during the Spanish colonial period after Manila. Iloilo is also one of the Royal Spanish Cities in the Philippines in the Spanish Asia along with Naga and Manila. At the turn of the 20th century, Iloilo City was second to the primate city of Manila in economy, with foreign and local commercial establishments lines the whole stretch of Calle Real (Iloilo's Escolta and old business district), an agricultural experimental station established at La Paz in 1888, a school of arts and trades which opened in 1891, and a telephone network system operating in 1894.
  Throughout the Spanish colonial regime in Iloilo, not only it gained significance in socio-economic and academic stratums in the Philippine history, but also in the religious milestones it had. The Roman Catholic faith brought by the Spaniards founded notable institutions like the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral, the seat of Roman Catholicism in Western Visayas and (the first National Shrine dedicated to Marian devotion in Visayas and Mindanao) (2nd National Shrine after the one in Cebu) and Archdiocese of Jaro, one of the oldest and largest archdioceses in the country founded as a parish in 1587. The famous image of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria (Virgin of Candelaria) perched atop the facade of Jaro Cathedral is (the first marian image crowned personally without a papal legate by a pope and saint in the Philippines and Asia) (by (Pope Saint John Paul II). It is widely venerated among catholic devotees with its feast day held annually every 2 February and is flocked by pilgrims from outside of Iloilo province and Western Visayas.
  The city's most Loyal and Noble City (La Muy Leal y Noble Ciudad) royal title, has become associated to its monikers as the "Royal City of the South" and "Queen's City of the South". Iloilo City is also dubbed as the "Asia's City of Love" which attributed to the widely known sweet spoken and gentle Ilonggo people and their sing-song accented Hiligaynon language (Ilonggo), as the "Museum of the Philippines" and "City of Mansions an
caption: Map of Western Visayas with Iloilo City highlighted
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