From Hilongos, Maasin City was just a further 37 kms.away, past the towns of Bato and Matalom. Doods and I finally reached city by 12:30 PM and Doods conveniently parked the car in front of the city’s Spanish-era Cathedral of Our Lady of Assumption. This church was started in 1771 by Jesuit Fr. Serapio Gonzalez, continued by Fr. Jose Paco from 1839 to 1852, destroyed by fire in 1884 and later rebuilt. In 1968, the church was made into a cathedral and, in 1993, the cathedral was made a National Shrine by the National Historical Institute.
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| Cathedral of Our Lady of Assumption |
Its simple, sparsely-decorated Early Renaissance façade has a semicircular arched main entrance flanked by narrow paired columns, a pediment with a centrally located a statued niche flanked by square windows and topped by a circular window. On its right is a tall and slender 3-storey bell tower and surrounding the church is a fortification with quadrilateral bulwarks at the corners. Part of the fortification has been demolished to give way to a school. A bulwark on the western side of the site has the inscription “San Carlos Año de 1781.” Inside the cathedral are Spanish-era images and santos found in its altar and ceiling.
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| The cathedral’s interior |