Colon Street

Named for Cristóbal Colón and laid out by the Spanish in 1565, Colon is the oldest street in the country. For most of the twentieth century it was Cebu's main commercial spine, lined with cinemas and department stores.

It is not a preserved heritage street and does not present itself as one. What it is now is a dense, loud retail corridor — cheap clothing, phone repair, street food — with an obelisk at one end marking its age. Read it as a working street with four and a half centuries behind it rather than as a monument.