Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Miag-ao

Miag-ao church was my latest UNESCO world heritage stop!

miag-ao church is one of only four (the others are san agustin church in intramuros, manila; santa maria church in santa maria, ilocos sur; and paoay church in paoay, ilocos sur) baroque churches in the philippines inscribed in unesco's world heritage site. according to unesco: The Church of Santo Tomas de Villanueva stands on the highest point of Miag-ao, its towers serving as lookouts against Muslim raids. It is the finest surviving example of 'Fortress Baroque'. The sumptuous facade epitomizes the Filipino transfiguration of western decorative elements, with the figure of St Christopher on the pediment dressed in native clothes, carrying the Christ Child on his back, and holding on to a coconut palm for support. The entire riotously decorated facade is flanked by massive tapering bell towers of unequal heights.

so even when
dad (thanks for some of the pics here, dad!) tried (hehehehe!) to dissuade me from traveling to miag-ao from iloilo city due to the long commute (he said that it'd be 2.5 hours), i included this in our iloilo itinerary. right after checking in the 'oh-so wonderful' ong bun pension house, we headed to iloilo's jeepney terminal a few blocks away from robinsons iloilo. we were in miag-ao about 1.5 hours later. when we got to miag-ao, the imposing and "sumptuous" facade of the church greeted us. inside the church, there was a group of teenagers practicing what seemed to be a repertoire for the salubong (easter celebration) but the church's main door was locked.

after our date with miag-ao church, dad and i went around the town plaza to look for merienda place for some batchoy or halo-halo and we found a nice one at the back of the church.

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