Category Archives: Churches

St. Peter’s Church (Melaka, Malaysia)

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After breakfast at the hotel, we proceeded to the hotel lobby where a coach was waiting for us at the driveway.  Once on board, we were brought to the Pusat Jualan Kraf (Craft Sales Center) where we paid up for our Melaka day tour.  We then transferred to a bigger tourist bus.

Pusat Jualan Kraf – Craft Sales Center

The trip to Melaka took just a little over 2 hours to cover the 148-km.  distance from Kuala Lumpur to the city.  First on our itinerary was St. Peter’s Church, built in 1710 (after religious freedom was proclaimed by the Dutch over Malacca in 1702), during the period of Dutch rule, by descendants of the original Portuguese colonists (including descendants of the 600 men that Alfonso d’Albuquerque brought ashore after his conquest of Melaka) on a piece of land donated by Dutch Catholic convert Maryber Franz Amboer.  At the time this area was outside the core city of Melaka.

St. Peter’s Church

The oldest operational Roman Catholic church in Malaysia, its facade (bearing a rosary monogram) and decorative embellishment is a mix of both Eastern and Western architecture.

Interior of St. Peter’s Church

The oldest item in the church is the bell, manufactured by Pedro Dias Bocarro in Goa in 1608 and salvaged from an earlier church burned down by the Dutch during their 1641 occupation.  The bell is inscribed with the words of the Annunciation “Ave Maria Gratia Plena Dominus Tecum Beneducta Tu In Mulieribus Sancta Maria (Hail Mary, Full of Grace, The Lord is With Thee, Blessed are Thou Among Women. Holy Mary).

Wisma St. Peter

The church also has a one-of-a-king, life-size alabaster statue of the “Lord Before The Resurrection.”  The Chapel of Senhor Morto (Christ in the Tomb) is located on the left hand side of the main church, close to the sanctuary. Also within the church compound is the Wisma St. Peter (a multipurpose building built in 2004)

St. Peter’s Church: Gereja St. Peter, 166 Jalan Bendahara, Bandar Melaka, 75100 Melaka, Malaysia. Tel: +60 6 282 2950. Fax: +60 6-2841010.

Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (Malolos City, Bulacan)

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After our Barasoain Church visit, Jandy and I proceeded on our way to the nearby Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the ecclesiastical seat of the Diocese of Malolos.  Located in front of the city hall, this Neo-Classical church, and its convent, were first built with light materials in 1591, rebuilt and enlarged in 1691 by Fr.  Roque Barrionuevo, rebuilt with stronger materials in 1734 by Fr. Fernando Sanchez and completed in 1740 by Fr. Juan de Meseguer. Fr. Jose de Vivar did minor restorations in 1753.  Both were destroyed by fire in 1813. From 1963, several restorations were pursued by Engr. Alfredo Aldaba, affecting the facade, dome, transept and main altar.  The present church was started in 1819 by Fr. Melchor Fernandez and consecrated on October 14, 1826.  Severely damaged during the June 3, 1863 earthquake, it was restored from 1859 to 1872 by Fr. Ezekiel Moreno.

Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception

The convent was damaged during the July 19, 1880 earthquake, restored in 1883 by Fr. Juan M. Tombo and completed in 1884 by Fr. Felipe Garcia. It was the official residence (Palacio Presidential) of Pres. Emilio Aguinaldo from September 10, 1898 to March 29, 1899.  The convent was reconstructed in 1975.  In 1976, both church and convent were blessed  by Rev. Bruno Torpigliani, the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines.

The convent

The basilica has a moderately-decorated, symmetrical facade divided into 3 segments by superpositioned Doric columns and dominated by large, semicircular arched openings on the first level.  The triangular pediment, decorated by a stylized Augustinian emblem at the center, is topped by acroteria and torch-like finials.  The horizontal Doric frieze is decorated with triglyphs and the fluted pilaster-flanked, statued niche is topped by a segmented canopy crowning the tilted frame of the center window.

The basilica’s interior

The basilica has a slender, 4-storey bell tower on its right.  It used to have a triangular cone which was replaced, during the basilica’s renovation in 1970, by a concrete statue of the Immaculate Conception (donated by Amparo Bautista).

The Kalayaan Tree

In front of the basilica (at the right side of the plaza) is a 12-m. high siar tree (Peltophorum pterocarpum), now known as the Kalayaan Tree.  It was said to have been planted by Gen. Aguinaldo during a lull in the convention. proceedings.  Under this tree is a monument depicting a meeting of Filipino revolutionaries Gregorio del Pilar, Isidoro Torres, Don Pablo Tecson, Fr. Mariano Sevilla and Dona Basilia Tantoco.

The monument under the Kalayaan Tree

Barasoain Church (Malolos City, Bulacan)

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After breakfast and swimming at DJ Paradise Resort & Hotel, Jandy and I checked out of our room, boarded our Toyota Revo and proceeded to the city proper where we plan to visit Malolos’ historical sights.  The first item in our agenda was, fittingly, the Barasoain Church (also called the Church of Our Lady of Carmel), the site of the Revolutionary Congress which ratified independence, framed the Malolos Constitution and inaugurated the short-lived First Philippine Republic (Malolos Republic). Former president Joseph E. Estrada also took his oath of office here.

Barasoain Church

This noble and dignified church, with its beautiful concerto of rhythmic layers, has a Neo-Classical facade with a recessed main entrance with concentric arches (a Romanesque feature) flanked by two smaller doors, fluted  flat pilasters (a Renaissance feature), a Baroque segmental pediment,  and sharp line moldings at the cornice, base and top of the piers.  The two sides of the facade, with its sweeping concave lines at the upper wall, curve inward to form an oval shape.

The altar frontal
The church interior
The church pulpit

Inside is a unique 18th century altar frontal with beautiful stone columns and murals on the walls and ceilings done by Baliwag artists and the National Historical Institute.  The church is now airconditioned during Sunday mass.

The bell tower

The 4-storey, octagonal bell tower on the left, was built in 1889 by Fr. Martin Arconada and is crowned by a conical roof.  It has 3 bells installed in 1897 and has alternating open and false windows rising in uneven modules that end up in the crenellated base of the pointed pinnacle.

Barasoain Convent

Beside the church is the convent.  First built in 1859 by Fr. Francisco Arriola, it was restored in 1889 by Fr. Martin Arconada and in 1894 by Fr. Miguel de Vera.  During the short-lived Philippine Republic, it was again restored by Arcadio Arellano and used as the Universidad Cientifica y Literaria de Filipinas.  It now houses two museums: the Ecclesiastical Museum and the Barasoain Museum.   Both church and convent were declared as National Landmarks on August 1, 1973 and on January 23, 1999.

Carriage used by Pres. Aguinaldo during his inauguration
The convent courtyard
Barasoain Church: Paseo de Congreso, Malolos City, Bulacan.  Tel: (044) 662-7686.

National Shrine of St. Anne (Hagonoy, Bulacan)

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National Shrine of St. Anne

The National Shrine of Saint Anne, honoring St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was first built of stone and brick from 1731 to 1734 by Fr. Juan Albarran OSA, but burned down on August 12, 1748. The church was rebuilt on its present site (moved due to flooding on the former site) by Fr. Eusebio Polo in 1749 and completed in 1752 by Fr. Buenaventura Roldan.

It was replaced with a stone church by Fr. Juan Coronado from 1815 to 1836, damaged by fire in 1856 and enlarged in 1862 by Fr. Manuel Alvarez.  The church was again damaged by during the 1871 earthquake and was repaired in 1872 by Fr. Ignacio Manzanares who strengthened the choir loft’s supporting arches.

NHI plaque installed in 1981

It was intermittently restored in 1936 and, in 1961, a monumental porte-cochere  was added by Fr. Celestino Rodriguez.  Prior to the mid-20th century renovation, the church façade was bare of ornamentation save for volutes founds on the end of the imaginary triangular pediment, circular reliefs and buttress-like pilasters capped with roof tiles.

The church’s Baroque facade

However, much of the design of the façade has been changed after the 1968 to 1970 renovation (under Monsignor Jose B. Aguinaldo and inaugurated on July 25, 1970) when the wood trusses and galvanized iron roofing were replaced, roof and main altar painted and the façade coated white and decorated with images placed above pilasters.

Statue of St. Anne

In 1981, a marker bearing a brief history of the church was installed on the facade by the National Historical Institute (now the National Historical Commission of the Philippines) and, in 1991, church was declared as a National Shrine.

Statues of Augustinian saints

The church’s Baroque façade, pierced with 5 windows (three semicircular arched ones and two rectangular ones on the first level), now sports three arched entrances, all featuring hardwood doors carved with great details.  The main entrance, with an antique hardwood door carved with bas-reliefs, is flanked by two smaller semicircular arched doorways.

Another row of statues of Augustinian saints

The four sets of superimposed pilasters, incorporated with Tuscan capitals, divide the facade into two levels (the first smaller than the second) and ends up in a triangular pediment with huge, contemporary statues of Augustinian saints flanking that of St. Anne.  At the center of the pediment is a rose window and a tableau of Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary. The porte-cochere, with its balustraded top, mars the view of the bottom part of the façade.

Cross with two cherubs at the top of pediment

The second level, dominated by a rose window in the center, has windows corresponding to the choir loft and partly hidden by the portico.  The convent beside the church is now the main building of St. Anne’s Catholic School.

The former convent, now St. Anne Catholic School

The six-storey square bell tower, to the left of the church, was originally a five-level tower.  During the 1968 to 1970 reconstruction of the church, the sixth level and a cupola was added. for Save for the balustrade, semicircular arch windows and buttresses placed at the corners of the tower, the bell tower is bare of detailed ornamentation. A cross, held up by two cherubs, caps off the entire façade.

Elaborately carved wooden door at main entrance

Another elaborately carved wooden door at the side entrance

This church holds the relics of St. Anne from the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, the international shrine in Quebec, Canada and also the relics of St. Joachim, the husband of St. Anne. 

The six-storey bell tower

National Shrine of St. Anne: Brgy. Sto. Niño, Hagonoy. Tel: (044) 793-2829. Feast of St. Anne: July 26.

How to Get There: Hagonoy is located 55.6 kms. (a 1.5-hour drive) from Manila an 15.5 kms. (a 40-min. drive) from Malolos City.

Church of St. Ildelfonsus (Guiguinto, Bulacan)

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Our slow progress along the MacArthur Highway was finally halted at Guiguinto where the bridge to Malolos was being repaired.  Parking my car at the municipal hall, we walked over to the nearby Church of St. Ildelfonsus.  This stone church and its convent, located near a saltwater stream, was built sometime in the late 17th century (1621 to 1691?), finished by 1734 (?) and was severely damaged during the June 3, 1863 earthquake where the upper part of its belfry fell off.

Guiguinto Municipal Hall

The church has Baroque and Muslim features with 4 sets of paired, superpositioned Doric columns, a large, semicircular main entrance in the center and Muslim-inspired geometric motifs on one of the side entrances.  The triangular pediment has a circular window almost at the base and a raking cornice decorated with volute crestings.

Church of St. Ildelfonsus

Its 4-level, octagonal bell tower, on the church’s left, has a blind surface that ends up in a balustraded pinnacle.  Of its existing bells, one dates to 1889 and was cast by Hilario Sunico and installed by Fr. Pedro Quiros.  A smaller one was installed in 1887.

The church’s interior

Back at the municipal hall, it was now time to make our way to Malolos City via the  alternative use of a confusing maze of narrow alleys and byroads.  Luckily, there were assigned personnel to safely guide us along the way.

Upon arrival in Malolos City, Jandy and I checked in at the very popular DJ Paradise Resort & Hotel.  This wasn’t the first I’ve been in this 5.7-hectare, Class AAA resort, having been here during Jandy’s school excursions, but this would be our first time to stay overnight.

Check out “Resort Review: DJ Paradise Resort“

DJ Paradise Resort: MacArthur Highway, Brgy. Dakila, Malolos City, Bulacan. Tel: (044) 791-5129 (connecting all departments), 662-4135 & 791-5384.   E-mail: info@djparadise.com.ph.  Website: www.djparadise.com.ph.

 

MacArthur Highway (Bulacan)

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Guiguinto Welcome Arch

This day, Jandy and I planned to stay overnight at the DJ Paradise Resort and Hotel in Malolos City.  However, instead of using the faster but monotonous North Luzon Expressway (and entering Malolos via the Tabang Exit), I plan to leisurely traversed the length of the more interesting but traffic-laden MacArthur Highway to get to Malolos City.  Formerly called the Manila North Road, this old, 2 to 6-lane highway was named after Lt.-Gen.  Arthur MacArthur, not after Gen. Douglas MacArthur, his more famous son, as I previously thought.

Valenzuela City Hall

The highway starts from the Bonifacio Monument in Grace Park, Caloocan City and extends through the Central Luzon provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga and Tarlac up to the Ilocos Region provinces of La Union and OPangasinan.  I entered it at Valenzuela City, a former Bulacan town that is now a city and part of Metro Manila.  Here, we made a short stopover at its city hall. 

Balagtas Public Market

From the city, we now entered the province of Bulacan,  absorbing the rural and urban feel of a number of Bulacan towns (Marilao, Bocaue, Balagtas and Guiguinto) and Meycauayan City along the way.  The highway is not as smooth as the newer NLEX and can be sometimes chaotic as you vie for road space with buses and the slower tricycles and jeepneys.  However, here you drive underneath a canopy of trees and the roadside scenery is more charming.

MacArthur Highway at Meycauayan City

National Shrine of St. Anne (Hagonoy, Bulacan)

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National Shrine of St. Anne

First built of stone and brick from 1731 to 1734 by Fr. Juan Albarran, this church was burned down on August 12, 1748. In 1749, it was rebuilt on its present site by Fr. Eusebio Polo  and completed in 1752 by Fr. Buenaventura Roldan. 

It was replaced with a stone church by Fr. Juan Coronado from 1815 to 1836, damaged by fire (which also damaged 30 houses in the town center) in 1856 and enlarged in 1862 by Fr. Manuel Alvarez.  The church was again damaged by during the 1871 earthquake and was repaired in 1872 by Fr. Ignacio Manzanares who strengthened the choir loft’s supporting arches.

Historical plaque installed by the National Historical Institute in 1981

It was intermittently restored in 1936, 1961 (a monumental porte-cochere was added by Fr. Celestino Rodriguez) and from 1968 to 1970 (under Monsignor Jose B. Aguinaldo) which changed much of the design of the façade (the wood trusses and galvanized iron roofing were replaced, roof and main altar painted and the facade coated white and decorated with images placed above pilasters).

Statue of St. Anne

In 1981, a marker bearing a brief history of the church was installed on the church by the National Historical Institute (precursor of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines). In 1991, it was declared a National Shrine.

Statues of Augustinian saints

The church’s Baroque façade, bare of ornamentation (save for volutes founds on the end of the imaginary triangular pediment, circular reliefs and buttress-like pilasters capped with roof tiles), is pierced with 5 windows: three semicircular arched ones and two rectangular ones on the first level.

Main wooden entrance door carved with bas reliefs

A porte-cochere, with a balustraded top, mars the view of the bottom part of the façade. . The façade also sports three semicircular arched entrances (one main and two smaller flanking ones), all featuring antique hardwood doors carved with bas-reliefs.

One of two smaller wooden doors

Four sets of superimposed pilasters, incorporated with Tuscan capitals, divide the facade into two levels (the first smaller than the second) and ending up in a triangular pediment with huge contemporary statues of Augustinian saints flanking that of St. Anne.

Cross with two cherubs

The second level, dominated by a rose window and a tableau of St. Anne and the Virgin Mary in the center, has windows corresponding to the choir loft and partly hidden by the portico.  The entire façade is capped off with a cross held by two cherubs.

The six storey bell tower

The convent beside the church is now the main building of St. Anne’s Catholic School.  The six-storey rectangular  bell tower (originally with five levels , a sixth level and a cupola was added during the latest reconstruction of the church) is also bare of detailed ornamentation except for the balustraded semicircular arch openings and buttresses placed at the corners of the tower.

St. Anne Catholic School

National Shrine of St. Anne: Brgy. Sto. Niño, Hagonoy, Bulacan. Tel: (044) 793-2829. Feast of St. Anne: July 26.

How to Get There: Hagonoy is located 55.6 kms. (a 1.5-hour drive) from Manila an 15.5 kms. (a 40-min. drive) from Malolos City.

San Diego de Alcala Pro-Cathedral (Silay City, Negros Occidental)

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During a break in the Locsin Reunion proceedings, Jandy, Cheska and I took time out to visit a beautiful Silay landmark – the  San Diego de Alcala Pro-Cathedral.  Designed by Italian architect Lucio Verasconi (he also designed the Silay Wharf, destroyed during World War II), he was commissioned by wealthy Silay resident and sugar baron Don Jose R. Ledesma, Sr. who also donated 75% of the funds needed to build the new church. The rest of the funds needed was raised through popular contribution, including fund-raising by schoolchildren.

San Diego Pro-Cathedral

This Romanesque-style church was formerly called the San Diego Parish Church or St. Didacus of Alcala (locally called San Diego de Alcala) Parish Church before its elevation to Pro-Cathedral on December 1994, the second in the country to be declared so and the only one outside Metro Manila.  Behind the cathedral are the ruins of the city’s original church, started by Fr. Eusebio Locsin in 1841 but never finished and left in disrepair.  It is now a grotto with a mini-chapel that serves as a prayer room.

The cathedral’s interior
The beautiful dome above the nave

The church was laid out in the shape of a Latin cross, with a cupola or dome rising 40 m. above the nave, the only church in the province to have one.  Groundbreaking was started in 1925 and the church was completed and inaugurated in 1927.  Freddie Ledesma, Don Jose’s grandson, did the paintings, of the Four Evangelists with their respective beasts, at the foot of the dome.  In 1938, upon the initiative of Mr. Vicente Montelibano, a clock costing PhP7,000 was installed on one of the church’s twin, domed bell towers (the one on the right).

The old church ruins

San Diego Pro-Cathedral: Rizal St., Silay City  6116, Negros Occidental.

Cathedral of the Epiphany of Our Lord (Lingayen, Pangasinan)

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This church, built in 1712, was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1892.  The dome was built by parish priest (1826-1834) Fr. Miguel Aparicio.  On January 9, 1945, the bishop’s residence was greatly damaged and the church was partially destroyed when American forces dropped bombs on the Poblacion.

Cathedral of the Epiphany of Our Lord

Cathedral of the Epiphany of Our Lord

The renovated church reopened in 1965 but it was damaged again during the July 16, 1990 earthquake and later repaired.  This massive adobe church, formerly the Three Kings Parish Church, is now the seat of the Lingayen Diocese which was created in 1932 with Msgr. Cesar Ma. Guerrero as its first bishop.

The 5-storey, octagonal bell tower

The 5-storey, octagonal bell tower

Its interiors have fine specimens of religious art in wood and metal and its imposing, Oriental pagoda-like (supposedly an architectural influence of the town’s Christianized Chinese inhabitants during the Spanish colonial period) , 45 yard high, 5-storey bell tower is said to be the tallest in the country.  Its centuries-old church bells dating back to the 1800’s, which fell during the American bombardment, are displayed in the Kampana Museum within the cathedral grounds.

Check out “Kampana Museum“

Cathedral of the Epiphany of Our Lord: Poblacion, Lingayen, 2401 Pangasinan.  Tel: 542-6235.  Feast of the Three Kings: January 4-6.

How to Get There: Lingayen is located 200 kms. from Manila and 15 kms. west of Dagupan City.

Church of St. Anthony of Padua (Macau)

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From the Protestant Cemetery, Jandy, Cheska and I walked over to the nearby Church of St. Anthony of Padua (Igreja de Santo António) at Sto. Antonio Square.  Consider to be the very first church of Macau, the original church, which marks the site where the Jesuits set up their earliest headquarters in the city, was first built of bamboo and wood before 1560. A stone church was erected in 1638, burned down in 1809 and rebuilt in 1810 and again in 1875. The present Neo-Classical church was a reconstruction carried out again in 1930.  Further construction and repair works were done on the facade and tower in 1940.

Church of St. Anthony of Padua

Previously, members of the Portuguese community would hold wedding ceremonies there, so giving rise to the Chinese name of Fa Vong Tong (Church of Flowers). The 2-storey church has a simple asymmetrical Neo-Classical facade, a 3-storey high bell tower and is topped by a boldly ornamented classical pediment. Decorative window architraves on the second level stretch the width of the building, providing additional architectural interest to the design.

Church of St. Anthony of Padua – Interior