St. Paul’s Cathedral (Vigan, Ilocos Region)
June 30, 2010 by chucha
Filed under Churches, Ilocos Region
St. Paul’s Metropolitan Cathedral was built by the Augustinian clergy around 1790 and like the St. William’s Cathedral, it has features a design intended to minimize earthquake damage that was referred to as “earthquake baroque”. Furthermore, it also features the Neo-Gothic and pseudo Romanesque motifs. There are brass communion handrails copied from China, complete with Chinese characters scribbled by its makers.
In the south of the cathedral lies the eight-sided bell tower used as a safety measure of the church. It was said to be built separately so that in any event of an earthquake, it would not topple into the church. The design said to have a Chinese Feng Shui influences. Lies inside the church is a tombstone of the great Ilocano poet Leona Florentino.
It is also in this church where Vigan’s Beloved late Governor Floro Crisologo was gunned down while he knelt on a pew inside the Cathedral in 1970.
*PHOTOS: Courtesy of Mr. Ivan Mainar
(4 votes,4.75)
Loading ...St. William the Hermit Cathedral (Laoag City, Ilocos Region)
June 28, 2010 by chucha
Filed under Churches, Ilocos Region
In 1580, the Augustinian Clergy founded the parish and made a church out of wood and tactched nipa palm chapel. It was then turned into a magnificent mixture of an Italian Renaissance Design and Baroque-style that was said to build between 1650 and 1700. It was seriously damaged during an earthquake in November 17, 1707, partially destroyed by fire in 1843. It was Fr. Vicente Barreiro who had completely restored it then.
Again, the church succumb to another damage in July 18, 1880 earthquake and it was Fr. Santiago Muniz and Engineer Antonio de la Camara who took charge of the repairs.
The church served as sanctuary for Pedro Almazan in 1661, the revolutionaries in 1896, American forces in 1899 and Aglipayans in 1901. The 1932 diocesan Marian Congress was held here as well. Further, the church suffered from another earthquake in September 7, 1983 which caused some statues from the altar and niches plummet into the floor.
This church made of brick and stone has a unique, newly-plastered, two-storey façade with a main arched entrance flanked by four pairs of over scaled, twin-engaged pilasters, with the absence of pediments, adorned by a series of coupled urn-motifs finials and pseudo- Corinthian Capitals with its rosettes and acanthus leaves. Five sets of mini-columns with pseudo-Doric Capitals arise from the architrave and decorated the choir loft level. Columns in each storey follow their patterns ending abruptly without reaching the next level. Capiz windows with wrought iron grilles and two-exterior stone staircases, one of it was converted into a grotto. The chandeliers donated by the late President Ferdinand Marcos hang gloriously in its barrel-vaulted ceilings. Over the altar lies the Augustinian emblem of a transfixed heart and a tasseled hat. The image of their Patron Saint San Guillermo is placed in a deeply recessed niche.
*PHOTOS: COURTESY of Mr. Ivan Mainar
(3 votes,5.00) Loading ...Ibaras Catholic Church (Igbaras, Iloilo)
June 27, 2010 by chucha
Filed under Southern Iloilo
Igbaras is considered to be a visita of Augustinian missionaries. It was in Tinogpahan, in the vicinity of Binanuaan that the first “Iglesita” or chapel was founded by Rev. Fr. Juan de Medina. The old church was said to be built in 1784, and a convent followed in 1795 under Fr. Ignacio Marcos. Big floods washed away the structures, but the ruins are still visible up to these dates.
A new church was constructed by Fr. Celestino Fernandez in 1872. It has a big convent and was finished under the term of Fr. Jose Lavania. However, both structures were destroyed by the infamous earthquake Lady Caycay in 1948.
(2 votes,5.00) Loading ...