Victoria

Victoria, officially the Municipality of Victoria, is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Tarlac, Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 63,715 people.^[3]

The municipality is located in the Province of Tarlac, geographically located in the central part of Luzon. It lies between 1”42’ north latitude and 120º35’ and 120”45 east longitude. It is bounded by Tarlac City, municipalities of Pura Gerona, La Paz and to the east by the Province of Nueva Ecija. The municipality has a total land area of 11,150 hectares, of which a large portion is used for agricultural activities.

The establishment of Victoria as a community may be traced back in the mid 1800’s when the Spanish regime started to expand north from Manila. It almost happened at the same time when Porac and Florida Blanca (now part of Pampanga) and Tarlac (now Tarlac city) were formed. In the mid 1800’s people started to settle around the swamp or wetland in search for a place where food is abundant. By 1849 houses and pockets of communities were deriving subsistence from the wetland. The biggest sitio was Namitinan which became part of the earliest barrio formed in 1852 called San Vicente de Canarum. The name was derived from the wetland called Canarum Lake. Not until the signing of the decree by the Spanish Governor General Manuel Crespo on March 28, 1855, that the barrio San Vicente de Canarum was separated from Tarlac to form an independent pueblo named Victoria. The name was used to highlight the victorious battle of the faithful followers of Queen Isabela of Spain over their European enemies.

Traces of its Spanish history may still be seen in the well preserved municipal building, several old houses depicting Spanish architecture and various edifices that were built more than a hundred years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria,_Tarlac