About Antipolo City

Antipolo is a city in the Philippines located in the province of Rizal; about 25 kilometers east of Manila.The city is popular for being a pilgrimage site. It prides itself as the “Pilgrimage Capital of the Philippines. It is found on the slopes of the Sierra Madre Mountain Range. Much of the city sits on a plateau averaging 150 meters. It has the second largest area in the province with an area of 306.10 km². The northern and southern sections of the city are in the dense forest areas of the Sierra Madre. Antipolo is landlocked; bounded to the north by San Mateo and Rodriguez; to the northeast by Gen. Nakar in neighboring Quezon Province; to the southeast by Tanay; to the south by Angono, Taytay and Teresa; and to the west by Cainta and Marikina City in Metro Manila.

The city was named after the Tipolo (breadfruit) tree (Artocarpus incisa) which was in abundance in the area. Franciscan missionaries arrived in Antipolo in 1578 and built a church in Boso-Boso. They were soon replaced in 1591 by the Jesuits who organized the village into a parish. By 1601, the Christian population of Antipolo had grown to about 3,000 as the indigenous Dumagat population dwindled and moved deeper into the interiors.The Chinese revolt of 1602 reached Antipolo which resulted to the razing of the church to the ground. On March 25, 1626, the image now known as the Virgin of Antipolo was brought from Acapulco, New Spain (now Mexico) by Governor-General Juan Niño de Tabora who relinquished the image to the Jesuits for Antipolo’s church.