Miagao Church
The Miagao Church also known as the Santo Tomas de Villanueva Parish Church is one of the four baroque churches in the Philippines which are listed in the UNESCO World Heritage sites list. According to UNESCO, “This group of churches established a style of building and design that was adapted to the physical conditions in the Philippines and had an important influence on later church architecture in the region. The four churches are outstanding examples of the Philippine interpretation of the Baroque style, and represent the fusion of European church design and construction with local materials and decorative motifs to form a new church-building tradition.”
These churches are known for “iconography of the ornately decorated naïf/folk pediment expressing the local understanding of the life of Christ and demonstrated by the use of local elements (papaya, coconut and palm tree reliefs), and the depiction of Catholic Patron Saints (St. Christopher) dressed in local and traditional clothing (particularly seen in the Miagao Church).”
I visited the church in July 2019, another one off my bakit list.
I went to Miag-ao in 2018. I was told an equally famous San Joaquin exists another hour away from Miag-ao. I made it there last August 2019. The bas relief in front of the church is just as stunning, it depicts the war of Morocco! (Go figure). The church is by the water and it’s proximity to it has caused a lot of wear and tear. It is not as well preserved owing to it not being a UNESCO World Heritage site, but its beauty and significance deserves attention as well.