Continuing on our way to Maasin City, Doods and I traveled the next 44 kms., past the towns of Inopacan and Hindang, to Hilongos. There, we made a brief stopover at the town’s Spanish-era, fortified Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. This church was built by Jesuit friars in the 18th century and renovated by secular Fr. Leonardo Celis-Diaz, a native of Cebu.
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| The modern Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. On its left is its Spanish-era bell tower |
The original church, now incorporated as a transept, was a single-nave structure whose main door was also the gate to a bastioned fortification. Some bastions and walls of that fortification still remain. The main nave of the church is a modern construction and the church interior is completely new.
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| Ruins of the bastioned fortification |
However, the town is more known for its octagonal flanking bell tower, now considered as the highest existing bell tower built in the Spanish era. Also built by Fr. Celis-Diaz, this independent multi-storey structure is now plastered over with Portland cement. The convent, probably completed in the 19th century, houses many of the church’s antiques including silver vessels from the 18th century.
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