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Parish of St. Martin (Dumalag, Capiz)

August 14, 2009 by  
Filed under Capiz, Churches

dumalagfront

An indication that the first church and convent were constructed between 1600 and 1720, a record of an exemption of payment for the rent was found in Manila.

Fr. Agustin Duran in 1883 constructed the present church which was a reconstruction of the previous one that was damaged.

Between 1866 and 1881, Fr. Angel Abasolo build or rebuilt the present church. The construction began with a fund of P300.00 and the expenses reached up to P50,000.00 by 1873. However, the church and convent were both destryoyed in 1875.

Measuring 70 meters long and 18 meters wide, the church is made of yellow sandstone. It has a front door and two side doors, massive buttresses supported six arched windows between columns reaching up to the roof.

The façade wall is decorated with small pilasters. At the left side of the church is a 5-story bell tower. The five bells found inside the belfry was brought by Fr. Ledesma Perez in 1881.

The interior resembles the pattern of a Latin cross. It had been retouched considerably and in the process, the magnificant paintings of Fr. Juan Carlos peeled off.

Rising up to the rectangular pediment are six rectangular pilasters that initiated a vertical movement and stressed by a slender, tapering six story octagonal bell-tower which offers elegance to the otheriwse dull surface façade.