Miagao Church: A World Heritage

I was fortunate to have seen another world heritage that is the Miagao Church last January when I went to Iloilo. I went with my friend Vinnie to Miagao since he teaches at UP Miagao. We took the public bus that took us one hour to the church.

One of the four earthquake baroque churches in the Philippines is the Church of Santo Tomas de Villanueva in the town of Miagao, Iloilo. This was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list in the year 1993. It has an amazing structure that stood the test of time. It was built in 1787 and later damaged by fire and earthquake and restored in the 1960s. It has two belfries and there were intricate designs on the façade. It was decorated with the sculpture of St. Christopher carrying the Christ child amidst coconut, papaya and guava shrubs. The design exudes a native touch making the church truly a “Philippine Church.”