Antipolo

**Antipolo** (officially the City of Antipolo, or *Lungsod ng Antipolo* in Filipino) is a component city and the capital of Rizal province in the Philippines. As of the 2024 census, its population stands at 913,712, making it the most populous city in both Rizal and the entire Calabarzon region, the seventh most populous city nationwide, and the most populated city classified as a component city.

Because it sits at a higher elevation than Metro Manila and the rest of Rizal, Antipolo offers clear vantage points overlooking the metropolitan area and nearby parts of the province—especially striking at night. Many FM and TV stations in Metro Manila also place their transmitters here, broadcasting across the Mega Manila area. The city is known among tourists for its locally grown mangoes and cashews, as well as *suman*, a glutinous rice delicacy. Hinulugang Taktak National Park, once a popular summer getaway, is being restored to become a primary attraction again after being devastated by a typhoon.

**Etymology**

The city takes its name from the breadfruit tree (*Artocarpus blancoi*), called *antipulo* or *tipulo* in Tagalog, which once grew abundantly in the area. It closely resembles the *kamansi* plant (*Artocarpus camansi*).

**History**

**Spanish colonial era**

Franciscan missionaries first arrived in Antipolo in 1578, building a small church on the site of what is now Boso-Boso Church. The Jesuits replaced them in 1591, organizing the village into a parish. By 1601, the Christian population had grown to about 3,000, while the indigenous Dumagat population dwindled and moved deeper inland. In 1602, an uprising of Manila’s Chinese residents reached Antipolo, resulting in the church being razed. On March 25, 1626, the image now known as the Virgin of Antipolo was brought from Acapulco, New Spain (present-day Mexico) by Governor-General Juan Niño de Tabora, who entrusted it to the Jesuits for the Antipolo church. In 1650, the village was organized into a town and became part of Tondo Province. When the province was divided in 1853, Antipolo joined the District of San Mateo de los Montes, later renamed the District of Morong. During the later 1700s, discharged soldiers and deserters from Mexico, Spain, and Peru provided military training to Indios using weapons that had spread across the territory during the British Occupation of Manila, dispersing through provinces around Manila, including Antipolo. The Recollects took over Antipolo in 1864, and during these years the Virgin of Antipolo gained a following of devotees. Pilgrims from Manila and nearby towns and provinces traveled to Antipolo on foot, carrying hammocks and trekking along mountain trails and springs.

**American colonial period**

During the First Republic, Antipolo served as the capital of Morong until the United States occupied it on June 4, 1899, during the Philippine-American War; the Revolutionary Government then moved Morong’s capital to Tanay. The Americans established a civil government in 1901, with Valentin Sumulong becoming the first municipal president. On June 11, 1901, Antipolo was incorporated into the newly created Province of Rizal, which included towns from the Morong District and Manila Province. In 1903, the nearby towns of Bosoboso and Teresa were merged with Antipolo. The town’s territory expanded again in 1913 to include the sitios of Mayamot and Bulao, only to lose Teresa six years later when it became an independent municipality. The Manila Railroad Company (now the Philippine National Railways) inaugurated a railway service to Antipolo on December 24, 1908. Long before the LRT Line 2 opened services in Santolan on the Pasig-Marikina border in 2004, steam train services had served those areas, even before World War II. In Marikina, a street called “Daangbakal” (also known as Shoe Avenue Extension, Munding Avenue, and Bagong Silang) exists, and a similar “Daangbakal” runs through the San Mateo-Montalban (Rodriguez) area. Maps show that these two roads should have been connected; as the Tagalog name suggests, they were once a single railway line. The two sides of the “Daangbakal” roads were linked by a bridge at the San Mateo-Marikina border. However, after the Japanese occupation, the railroad tracks were largely ignored and transformed into separate highways, abandoning the railway connection. The old tracks, called the Marikina Line, ran from Tutuban station in Manila, through Tramo (Barangay Rosario, Pasig), to Marikina and up to Montalban. At the northern end of the “Daangbakal” road in Montalban is a basketball court, situated between the Montalban Catholic Church and Cemetery, which occupies the former site of the railway line’s terminus station. The present-day Santo Niño Elementary School in Marikina is said to have been a train depot, and a railroad station reportedly once stood in the Marikina City Sports Park. The Marikina Line was completed in 1906 and operated until 1936. It is said that the Japanese Imperial Army used this railway line during World War II. The railways were dismantled during the 1960s and converted into ordinary roads. Today, citizens rely on tricycles, jeepneys, taxis, UV Express services, buses, and AUVs, contributing to the everyday unbearable traffic of Metropolitan Manila. There remains uncertainty about the Northrail project, intended to link Manila to the northern provinces of Luzon, due to corruption in its construction. Aside from the Marikina Line, two other lines existed before but have been permanently removed: the Cavite Line, which passed through Paco, Parañaque, and Bacoor.