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Banaue: The Hanging Mountain Town (part 01)

After more than 10 hrs ride I finally reached Banaue, Ifugao on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. I arrived in the place very excited to comment on the the town architecture and was plan and put everything I see in writing and post it here.

Lies in the northern most part of the province of Ifugao, Banaue reminds me of the sub sub urban highlands you see before you reached Baguio City proper. From the top, settlements in Poblacion are nestled along in letter "J" or “U” shape. The town proper has narrow sloppy streets usually 5-6 meters wide without sidewalk. Residential houses, inns and souvenir shops and commercial centers nestle in the town proper. The municipal building is located in a top most portion of the mountain a less than a kilometer away from the busy commercial center of Poblacion.

In the town proper, the Ifugao is already utilizing modern way of building construction. Most of the buildings use reinforced concrete posts and slab with unplastered concrete hollow blocks walls. And speaking of walls, due to low temperature in the region, Ifugao modern structures utilized galvanized iron corrugated sheets for their sidings to warm interiors.

Edifices usually built in more than one floor high stand proud by a mountain cliff on concrete or wooden stilts as if they are hanging in the clouds especially when rendered with morning mist. Buildings roofs are made galvanized iron corrugated roofing usually painted with red oxide primer. But many buildings now preferred roof concrete slab to maximize land use.


By putting balconies as part of their house space you will know how the local are very much proud and appreciative in the beauty of their surrounding.

posted by xhris @ 6:14 AM