The History of Puerto Princesa
Puerto Princesa’s story runs from a Spanish naval port to a wartime tragedy to today’s eco-tourism capital of the Philippines. Understanding it deepens any visit — and every Puerto Princesa tour passes through some of these places.
A Spanish port named for a princess
Spanish colonisers formally founded the settlement on 4 March 1872, naming it Puerto de la Princesa — the port of the princess — after Infanta Eulalia of Spain. By May 1872 the bay, deep and sheltered, had become a centre of Spanish naval operations in Palawan. Incentives drew settlers, and by 1883 the town had a planned grid of streets, a hospital and a working port; in 1894 it was recognised as one of the best-ordered towns in the country.
American administration
Under American rule the town grew in importance: in 1904 the Iwahig Penal Colony, the famous ‘prison without bars’ where inmates farm rather than sit behind cells, was established nearby, and in 1911 Puerto Princesa became the seat of the Palawan provincial government. The Immaculate Conception Cathedral traces its origins to the first mass of 1872, though the present Neo-Gothic building was completed only in 1961.
The Palawan Massacre, 14 December 1944
Puerto Princesa carries one of the Pacific War’s darkest memories. On 14 December 1944, at the site now preserved as Plaza Cuartel, Imperial Japanese soldiers killed American prisoners of war held in the town; 139 died and only eleven men survived, aided by local Filipinos. Today Plaza Cuartel is a national historical site and memorial park, opposite the cathedral, and a stop on the city tour. It is a quiet, sobering place that visitors approach with respect.
Cityhood and an eco-tourism capital
Puerto Princesa became a chartered city on 1 January 1970 under Republic Act 5906, and was declared a highly urbanised city in 2007. In the late twentieth century it earned a national reputation for cleanliness and environmental governance, becoming known as the ‘City in the Forest’ and the eco-tourism centre of the Philippines.
That reputation was sealed in 1999, when the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and again in 2012, when the Underground River was named one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. Those honours turned a quiet provincial capital into one of the country’s most visited destinations — the subject of our Underground River guide.
The name and its origins
The name Puerto de la Princesa — the port of the princess — is generally attributed to Infanta Eulalia of Spain, a daughter of Queen Isabella II, born in 1864. Local legend offers a second story of a princess-like figure seen crossing the bay at night, though that folk tale has no documentary backing. Whatever its exact inspiration, the name has endured for more than 150 years; the modern spelling is Puerto Princesa, and the double-s variant sometimes seen is simply an error.
A quieter kind of fame
The American-era Iwahig Penal Colony, founded in 1904 on farmland outside the town, became famous as a ‘prison without bars’, where inmates work the land and sell handicrafts rather than sit in cells — an unusual experiment that still draws curious visitors. During the Second World War the town was occupied, and American prisoners of war were held here from 1942 until the 1944 tragedy at Plaza Cuartel. In the decades since, Puerto Princesa reinvented itself around conservation, winning national awards for cleanliness and green governance long before the Underground River’s global honours arrived.