Tuguegarao
— — the river city the heat keeps coming back to.
Not only on a wall.
“The capital of Cagayan Province, on the west bank of the Cagayan River in the far north of Luzon. The cathedral has stood since 1767, Spanish baroque limestone the colour of dry rice straw, on the plaza where the jeepneys turn around. Tuguegarao still holds the country's hottest recorded temperature, 42.2°C on a May afternoon in 1969. The bowl of pancit batil patung at the corner stall comes with a poached egg on top.
Tuguegarao, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Tuguegarao is the capital of Cagayan Province and the regional centre of Cagayan Valley (Region II), in the far north of Luzon. The city sits on the west bank of the Cagayan River, the longest river in the Philippines at about 505 km, near the mouth of the Pinacanauan tributary. The 2020 census recorded a population of 166,334. The Spanish established the town in 1604 under Dominican administration, and the present cathedral parish dates to 1767. Manila lies roughly 480 km south by the Pan-Philippine Highway.
St Peter's Metropolitan Cathedral, on the central plaza, was built between 1761 and 1767 of locally quarried limestone, in the Spanish baroque style brought north by the Dominicans. The five-tier bell tower beside it, finished a few years later, was for a long time the tallest structure in the Cagayan Valley. The Buntun Bridge, just outside town, crosses the Cagayan River in 1,098 metres of pre-stressed concrete and steel, among the longest river bridges in the country. The cathedral and the bridge anchor the two ends of the old colonial road.
Tuguegarao records some of the hottest weather in the Philippines. The national high of 42.2°C was set here on 11 May 1969 by the PAGASA station; the city regularly tops 38°C from April through early June, before the southwest monsoon brings the summer rain. The Cagayan Valley funnels typhoons in from the Pacific between July and November, and Typhoon Megi made landfall just north of town in 2010. The dry-season air smells of sun-warmed rice straw and grilled longganisa from the carinderias along Bonifacio Street.