Many parishioners wept upon seeing the ruins of their century-old church, which was gutted by fire in Oslob town, about 117 km south of Cebu City.

They were, however, thankful that the 19th century image of the Our Lady of Guadalupe that was placed inside a glass case at the center of the altar was spared in the fire that broke out at 1:45 a.m. yesterday.

Firefighters also found 73 other icons below the bell tower and some portions of the Our Lady of Immaculate Conception parish church in barangay Poblacion.

The seven major churches of the different religious Orders in Intramuros before WWII.

The simbahan and its related structures are not always permanent. There are many factors that have caused its destruction, abandonment and left to ruin. In the course of a town’s life, populations rise and fall as what happened in Calavite, Mindoro where the constant Muslim slave raids greatly decimated the populace.
Plagues and diseases ravage settlements and are abandoned. Volcanoes erupt thereby forcing villagers to transfer locations like what happened in Taal, Batangas where the town and the church have been relocated several times or, as popularly known, the Cagsawa …