The grand and baroque cemetery chapel of San Joaquin, Iloilo

The old cemetery chapels located in the camposanto built during the Spanish colonial era is one of the interesting religious heritage structures in the country. Unfortunately, many don’t have the focus they deserve. Only a few remain that still exists in the Philippines and their deterioration continues to this day.

This Top 10 list is a good start and that Filipinos should visit or be aware of. This listing is in no way complete as there are still some places that I have to visit but do note that this list covers cemetery chapels found outside of Metro Manila. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any cemetery chapels in Mindanao. Another note, this doesn’t include mortuary chapels which are found beside or infront of the church.

This is my entry for the Pinoy Travel Bloggers’s blog carnival hosted by The Pinay Solo Backpacker.

1 San Joaquin, Iloilo
Perhaps one of the most beautiful in the country, the cemetery chapel in San Joaquin, Iloilo is a head turner as one passes by the highway. A gated entrance leads to a grand staircase and on to this beautiful baroque structure that always awes visitors.

The cemetery chapel of Cabatuan, Iloilo has stylized bas relief

2 Cabatuan, Iloilo
Cabatuan in Iloilo is known mostly for its massive and beautiful church with a retablos made of sandstone. But few know that its cemetery chapel along the highway has one of the most stylized skull and cross bones in mortuary art during the Spanish colonial period. More info and images here.

Tabaco City cemetery chapel in Albay is unique for its construction material

3 Tabaco City, Albay
The cemetery chapel in Tabaco City is one of the well preserved structures in the Bicol region. It uses black lava stones abundant in the area, similar to the construction material of the old church. It has interesting bas relief details at its facade.

Tayabas's Santuario de las almas

4 Tayabas, Quezon
The Santuario de las almas in Tayabas is one of two cemetery chapel found in the municiaplity. This beautiful structure is one of the biggest in the country and where Spaniards and Filipino elites were used to be interred. Though located a few hundred meters from the basilica, it faces it directly.

Tayabas cemetery chapel in Quezon is unique with its twin towers and architectural style

5 Tayabas, Quezon
The cemetery chapel in Tayabas, Quezon is interesting as it is one of a few chapels with twin belfries, similar to Lucban, in the same province, which is now in ruins. What makes it more interesting is the use of Gothic architectural style which is represented by the trefoil pediment reminiscent of Lucban church and the lancet blind niche, central niche and entrance.

Nagcarlan's cemetery chapel done in the baroque style

6 Nagcarlan, Laguna
Nagcarlan in Laguna is famous for its underground cemetery, the only public catacomb in the country. Like the simbaan a bassit in Vigan, it has an espadana at the top serving as its pediment, a pair of blind oculi and a central niche. It is also the highlight of a circular cemetery.

Vigan's Simbaan a bassit in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

7 Simbaan a bassit, Vigan City, Ilocos Sur
Historic Vigan City is admired for its old structures and one of these is the cemetery chapel also called Simbaan a bassit. Done in the neoclassical style and adorned with a pair of volutes at the side (a baroque style) and some floral details, its the only one that has an espadana (top part where the bells are hung) in the Ilocos region.

The Calamba cemetery chapel in Cebu City is unique for its beautiful and unusual bas relief of death

8 Calamba, Cebu City
Of the cemetery chapels listed here, its only the Calamba chapel that has been refurbished and renovated badly with the front added with a badly designed portico and the lower portion cemented. This chapel is interesting for its bas relief located at the center of the pediment. It shows death with a scythe, crowned and holding an hour glass which readily drives down to men his mortality.

The quaint baroque cemetery chapel of Laoag City

9 Laoag City, Ilocos Norte
Tucked in one of the least visited places in Laoag City (well, except during 1 November), the cemetery chapel of this city is one of the bigger ones but quaint and built in subdued baroque style. Like Saravia, it is one of the few intact brick cemetery chapel in the country.

Saravia's cemetery chapel with brick facade

10 E.B. Magalona, Negros Occidental
E.B. Magalona, formerly Saravia, in Negros Occidental has a beautiful cemetery chapel that is located near the highway. Of the many places I’ve visited, it is one of the very few brick structure that has an intact facade that I have seen. However, the interior has been renovated already and the roof has been replaced. More info here.

Front wall with huge pillars crowned with finials

It is not known when the old cemetery of Anini-y in Antique, just at the side of the main road and a few kilometers from the town center, was built but the design is the same with the neighboring town of Tobias Fornier (formerly Dao). It consists only of wall with massive rectangular pillars. The front has lower walls and the pillars crowned with finials while the back has higher and the pillars not decorated.

The entrance at the front has two massive pillars, bigger than those found at the walls and I assume that it supported a canopy before. Now, only a modern and cement arch that is very incongruous with the architecture connect these two with an iron wording that reads:

Mabanhaw kami (We will be resurrected)

The walls are made from cut coral stones, just like the church and ruined kumbento.

Ruins of the original kumbento found at the back

The construction of the original kumbento (parochial house) of Anini-y was continued by Fray Jeronimo Vaquerin when he arrived 1878 and finished it a year later. During World War II, it was almost totally destroyed and the current structure was built over the ruins. One can still see the form of the 19th century edifice, made from cut coral stones, although, only the lower portion still exists. The kumbento is located a few meters left of the church.

Detail of the main inscriptions of the primary bell of Anini-y Church baptized with its patron saint

Upper portion of Anini-y Church belfry

The belfry of Anini-y church consists of three tiers with a quadrilateral base and the remaining two tiers octagonal and capped with a dome. It is located at the right side of the facade and is attached to the church. It is a simple structure with the details only limited to decorative columns, finials at each corner and dentils along the margin of the tiers and, from afar, looks imposing, looming over the facade. There are windows at each level but not at all sides.

Entrance is via a steel staircase inside the church which is just beside the entrance to the baptistry but seem unstable as it wobbles when one is at the top flight. The original entrance was accessed through the choirloft which is now missing.

The belfry is made from coral stones. This is much evident when one comes up the stairs. There are exposed mamposteria while some surfaces have been covered with cut coral stones including the barrel vault leading to the landing. The window facing the front has been added with a grill

The original wooden staircase is gone except for a piece that is still attached to the wall. Instead, it now has a free standing steel spiral staircase with a cement base leading to the next level where the bells are located.

There are a total of five bells in Anini-y Church, with some, having been recast sometime in 1986 with their esquilas (wooden counterweights for bells that are rotated) scattered at the back of the presybtery.

Bell 1. San Juan de Nepomuceno. Remaining original bell dedicated to the patron saint and is now placed at the floor of the church with the following details:

30 @ 18 lbs
DEDICACADA A S. JUAN NEPOMUCENO
SIENDO CURA PARROCO DE ESTE PUEBLO DE ANINI EL R.P.F. BERONIMO VAQUERIN
ANO 1898
H SUNICO Y HOS JOABONEROS 50 (this is the famous foundry of Hilario Sunico who supplied many bells and window grills in many churches around the country)

Bell 2. No inscriptions

Bell 3. Paris8h of San Juan Nepomuceno
Anini-y, Antique
ALBEMI
P.C. ARISTOZA METAL CRAFT, CADIZ CITY, NEG. DEL NORTE

Bell 4. Same with Bell 2 but additional inscription of Potenciana

Bell 5. 20 @ 18 lbs
ANO DE 1897
FUNDICION DE H SUNICO Y HOS
JABONEROS 50

The beautiful rock hewn baptismal font, undated

The baptistry of Anini-y Church is located at the base of the belfry with a vaulted stone ceiling made of corals. It has two large arched windows and the walls are a meter thick. When one enters the main portal, it is at the left through an arched entrance. Two things that will readily catch one’s attention:

• the baptismal font, and
• the niche with decorative elements

The baptismal font is really interesting. While most churches have these made of marble with a simple finish and usually, etched with the date, except that of Carcar, the one in Anini-y is made from rock hewn stone with decorative bas relief on its surface. I haven’t seen any dates etched on the surface.

For the niche, it has stylized decorative corinthian columns, urn like finials, a fascia with dentils and below it are a series of rosettes. What makes this different from other churches I’ve seen is that instead of the common triangular pediment, a fanlike projection with a base takes it’s place. This motif is also copied at the presbytery which is modern.

Interior of Anini-y Church showing the supports of the supposed choir loft

The interior of Anini-y Church is austere and lacking the rich details of some old churches like San Agustin. When Fray Jeronimo Vaquerin built the present church, it only had the unfinished main arch of the presbytery when the revolution swept in 1898. The roof and backwall got destroyed during the typhoon of 1973 and has been rebuilt.

There is nothing much to see at present but the arches and pillars near the main portal provides is interesting as it used to hold the choir loft. The ceiling is also unusual as it uses galvanized iron sheets and when one converses at the ground, it echoes.

The beautiful and richly executed Augustinian emblem atop the main portal of Anini-y Church

The facade of Anini-y Church

The sight of Anini-y Church is quite welcome to the traveler from Iloilo. After the more than two hours bus and jeepney trip from Iloilo City, across mountains, coastal municipalities, well paved and bad roads, there it is, simple but enlivened with the rich details found at its facade.

Like most other churches in the country, the facade still follows the main template: a rectangular level topped with a triangular pediment. From a distance, it does look squat, just like most similar structures, but its linearity of design, well arranged details and clean divisions make it pleasant to the eyes.

The first level is equally divided into three. The main portal is at the center with its arch beautifully decorated with rosettes. A bishop’s miter is carved at the arch’s midpart. Atop it is a rectangular relief where an inscription might have been put. A beautiful and richly designed emblem, though quite small, of the Augustinians, the builder of this church, is at the topmost. The center’s flanks are with niches where the arches are decorated with acanthus leaf bas reliefs. Atop these are circular windows.

The center of the pediment, which is standard and where the patron saint is placed, has a beautifully carved niche ringed with acanthus leaf bas reliefs. It also echoes the main facade with its own triangular pediment topped with finials. Below this is a pair of corinthian columns. Flanking this are blind oculi.

The pediment has two finials at its side, with the right one, when facing the church, still intact while the other one has broken its top. At the center is just a remnant of the lower portion of the cross. The broken off part is now found among the debris in the ruined kumbento.

The cemetery chapel as it looked in July 1986. Note the tejas (tiles) for its roofing

A Simbahan reader, Handel Advento sent me an email together with impressive images of the then Oton cemetery chapel prior to its renovation in 21 October 1997. I was awe struck with its beauty and antiquity, a far cry from what we see now. Handel wrote:

Here are the photos of the Oton cemetery chapel taken around July 1986. A simple camera was used for these shots so I hope you understand the low quality. The chapel just caught my interest along the way to somewhere else and we simply stopped to take pictures.

He continues:

The inscription as seen in your photos now was actually on the right side entrance of the chapel (if you’re facing the front), and there was no inscription on the main entrance at that time. It was also very faded and hardly discernable.

The biggest surprise to me was the tile roof. What struck me when I first saw it was its similarity to the chapel housing Magellan’s Cross in Cebu… And there were no block-like marks on the walls. The whole structure really had the mark of antiquity at that time.

Unfortunately, the tile roofing was removed and thrown away and those block like marks etched, like what we find in most ill defined restoration projects we see around the country. From the main photo, we can actually infer that this chapel really had three portals with the two found at its sides. These portals had the same column, finial and skull and cross bones decoration. As Handel pointed out, these portals also had inscriptions. Probably, during the renovation, they closed the two side entrances.

My gratitude to Handel Advento for this important images and information.

Photo credits: Handel Advento/Maximilius Tuason

Anini-y Church is a beautiful structure found at Antique's end

Panay Island is like a triangle with the province of Antique, a long sliver of land and mountains by the sea stretching from one end to the other, at the western side. At the province’s end, a beautiful Spanish colonial era church, probably the only intact one in Antique, the rest are in ruins, can be found. Made from cut coral stones, it has interesting details at its facade, a wide front dominated with large acacia trees while its kumbento found a few meters at its right.

View of the church from the front of the kumbento. CLICK TO ENLARGE

Originally a visita of Hamtic, with an Augustinian priest coming over once a year, it became a separate parish only in December 1861 but took effect March 1862. With the lack of religious, the Seculars administered the town until 1875 when an Augustinian, Fray Romualdo Crespo was appointed parish priest. Cagayancillo was separated from Anini-y in 1895.

View of the nave, epistle side. CLICK TO ENLARGE

In 1878, Fray Jeronimo Vaquerin arrived and finished the kumbento. He also started replacing the second church with a new one of masonry. By 1894, it was already roofed but in 1898, at the outbreak of the revolution against Spain, the church was almost finished. It was bigger than the previous two at 65m x 16m x 10m with one nave.

In 1902, when the church was vacant, it was used by the Aglipayans and in 1906, the Mill Hill Fathers, a religious congregation arrived from England who then administered the spiritual needs of the town. One fortunate thing that happened to this structure was the appointment of Fr. William Erickweld. While some churches in Panay were totally renovated, the priest instead restored the edifice to its current state.

Saravia's old cemetery entrance arch and gate

Part of the original wall at the back near the old niches. A much older wall?

Saravia’s old cemetery is still intact with its chapel and portions of the perimeter fence, all made from bricks. Entrance to the area is through a simple arch with a still original but already bent metal gate.

The design of this arch echoes the main design of the chapel’s pediment and portal decorations which is, again, muted. Unlike most other cemeteries, I can’t find any skull and crossbone design or any motif that is connected with death.

The perimeter fence is typical but smaller in scale when compared to those of Cabatuan, Sta. Barbara, Janiuay and Guimbal, all in Iloilo. It still has its original metal grills that is similar in design with the rest. One curious thing about this is, at the back, beside the original niches is still a portion of, perhaps, a much older wall that is made from stone. It has a smaller column and no grills.