Visita Iglesia from the air

One of the traditions of Philippine Holy Week is the Visita Iglesia. Until the mid-19th century, that meant walking or taking a short calesa ride to seven churches in the city. Most of Manila’s major churches were within a two-kilometer radius of Intramuros, which itself was filled with several churches and convents.

In postwar Manila, the range expanded as suburbanization sprawled, and churches with it. I grew up in the suburbs and the annual Visita Iglesia was a tour that led the family around Quezon City, Greenhills, Pasig, San Juan, Makati and New Manila. Some years this would extend to the old capital and its heritage churches.

In the last year or so, I’ve taken to visiting churches, not just on Holy Week but whenever I get the chance; to document churches and their settings. Many of our churches are being compromised by encroaching urbanization, or compromised internally from ill-advised additions.

My visits and documentation, however, have been from a different perspective — that of a bird’s-eye view. Using remotely controlled flying camera-drones, I’ve been able to take amazing shots of churches in their urban or suburban contexts. You can see a lot from the air and such a view leads to greater appreciation of the beauty of these structures, the spaces around them, as well as the precarious conditions some of them are in.

Here are the churches in my aerial Visita Iglesia:

1. The Church of the Holy Sacrifice   — We called it the “flying saucer,” a favorite subject of our architectural sketching classes at my alma mater, the University of the Philippines in Diliman. The church is the first of many landmarks designed by National Artist for Architecture Leandro V. Locsin.

The church in the round was built in 1955 and features the artistry of four more National Artists: Vicente Manansala and Ang Kiukok painted the Stations of the Cross, Arturo Luz created the floor design in terrazzo, and Napoleon Abueva created the double-sided crucifix and the altar.

The church has not weathered the last few decades well. It is in need of conservation. Its previously immaculate and simple grounds have now been fenced in and cluttered with all manner of “landscaping” and embellishment that detract from the original intent of accessibility and openness of the original composition.

In 2005, National Historical Institute and the National Museum listed the structure as a National Historical Landmark and a Cultural Treasure.

2. Sta. Maria della Strada Church — This landmark church is just outside the UP campus and the La Vista Village on Katipunan. It was planned under the watch of Cardinal Sin and Fr. Pat Lim. The architect Marcos De Guzman created the church with a modern trapezoidal geometry and a simple interior.

The church was designed and built in the ’80s. It is popular with villagers both from exclusive subdivisions nearby and informal settlements to the rear.

The church is now more popular because of an Ayala mini-mall next door, which was built on the former UP High.  It would have been good if the church were integrated with this “town center” using a plaza or open space to connect the two.

3. The Gesu at ADMU (it rhymes!) — Just next door to the two modernist churches is another modernist creation: the Gesu of the Ateneo de Manila University. The Gesu uses a triangular plan, elevation and massing to create a unique interior space and external silhouette. An elegant bell tower in white balances the composition.

The architect, Bong Recio, designed the Gesu a decade ago when the university was under the aegis of Fr. Nebres. The church sits well on its elevated site and fronts the expansive Belarmine Field. Without this space the structure would be less imposing.

4. Sto. Domingo — A few kilometers to the east of these three modern churches is the Sto. Domingo church, a personal favorite of mine because of its classical massing and elegant early modernist style.

The church was built to replace the original located in the Intramuros and destroyed in the Second World War. Carlos Arguelles designed the new church of reinforced concrete and in a style that was a hybrid evolution of the prewar art deco style. The church is massive in scale but well-proportioned inside and out, with a seamless relationship with its convent and other buildings in the complex.

The interior is an uplifting space with restrained ornamentation and statuary. The central dome rests dramatically over the space and how it was constructed has always fascinated me. Outside and on its façade are two reliefs, one of the La Naval de Manila and the other of the saint himself, which was sculpted by the Italian artist Francesco Monti.

5. Pasig Cathedral — From Quezon City we motor to Pasig City, where I grew up and still live, albeit on its modern fringes. The Pasig Cathedral, also known as the as the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, is the oldest Marian church in Asia. It was first built in 1571 and, like most extant Spanish-era churches, has undergone changes and restorations.

It still sits fairly intact and with its original relationship to the plaza in front. My firm and I had been tasked with the plaza’s renovation a few years ago. We integrated the Rizal Plaza with the Pasig City Museum beside it (an old heritage house adaptively reused). We had wanted to integrate the church better by extending the plaza to connect with the church’s plaza, but this has to wait for a larger district revival, which is already underway and being undertaken by the current Pasig City Administration under Mayor Maribel Eusebio.

The church has an old “provincial feel” and scale. This is probably because Pasig itself has retained a very human-scaled texture and morphology. The Pasig City Hall complex nearby is also undergoing district revitalization and the intention is to connect it to this old core anchored by the church.

6. San Sebastian — This is the famous steel church of Manila. No, its official history states it was not designed or built by Gustav Eiffel, although some scholars point to the possibility that the original designs may have been by the famous French engineer.

The church had to be rebuilt four times from the late 1600s to 1880, when the parish priest at the time had enough and asked Spanish architect Genaro Palacios to build one of steel. It took eight shiploads to transport the steel components from Belgium in 1890. It was completed a year later. Basilica Minore de San Sebastian was consecrated by the archbishop of Manila, Bernardo Nozaleda, on Aug. 16, 1891.

The structure is over a century old but is not threatened by rust and corrosion, being near enough to Manila Bay for the salt air to affect it. It is on the watch list of endangered sites set by the World Monuments Fund. It is currently on the tentative list as a World Heritage Site and is undergoing conservation, albeit with limited funds raised by the Recollect fathers and the congregation of the church. The architectural conservator Tina Paterno is leading the intrepid team trying to save the church.

7. Manila Cathedral — The seventh and final church in this Visita is the physical center of Philippine Catholicism, the Manila Cathedral (formally the Manila Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica).  This edifice is the eighth incarnation of this church since the first edifice was built in 1571. The basilica’s interiors still take your breath away and being inside is always, well, a religious experience.

The basilica just completed its latest renovation after structural defects were noticed a few years ago. The previous seven editions were damaged to varying degrees, mostly as the result of temblors.

The architecture of the basilica has changed since the 19th century, with modern architects taking artistic license in the last rebuilding that was completed in 1958. It nevertheless stands as imposing as it did centuries ago when it lorded it over the Plaza Roma along with the Ayuntamiento (recently restored and serving as the Bureau of Treasury) and the Governor’s Palace beside it.

Visita Iglesia is a wonderful Holy Week tradition. You need not wait for Holy Week to visit these churches and the hundreds all over the country that are part of our architectural heritage. Many have been lost, or are being lost to lack of maintenance, earthquakes and typhoons, or sheer ignorance of the priests who mismanage a lot of these properties. They are human, too, and have sinned. Maybe they should be made to repent and restore the glory of these edifices. The plazas in front of these churches also need to be saved and it is the responsibility of the communities and congregations of these places to step up and restore their heritage cores.

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Feedback is welcome. Please email the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.