We first visited, via a short hike up a hill, the fortress-like Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Built in 1656, this church houses the statue of the miraculous Ina ng Biglang-Awa (translated as “Mother of Instant Mercy”), the province’s patron saint (since 1792) to which is attributed deliverance from a 19th-century Moro attack. The revolution’s flag was brought here by Canuto Vargas to be blessed in 1899.
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| Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception |
The cathedral has a simple brick facade and a 4-storey (square at the first 2 storeys and octagonal at the upper 2) bell tower on its left. Its carved wooden portals are decorated with flora and fauna, cherubs and the images of the Four Evangelists: John, Luke, Mark and Matthew. Within the church grounds is an old, broken bell.
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| Cheska with the old, broken down church bell |
As the church doors were locked, we weren’t able to see the church’s well-maintained and faithfully restored interior said to have brick walls, wall-hung period lamps, a ceiling with designs of Muslim brass gongs, two sets of Stations of the Cross (in wood and stained-glass windows) and three richly decorated and intricate retablos (altar backdrops).