Devotees wept after a deadly earthquake Tuesday rocked the birthplace of Catholicism in the Philippines, badly damaging the country’s oldest church and leaving other historic places of worship in ruins. Ten churches, some of which have crucial links to the earliest moments of the Spanish colonial and Catholic conquest in the 1500s, were damaged as the 7.1-magnitude quake struck the central islands of Cebu and Bohol.
“It is like part of the body of our country has been destroyed,” Michael Charleston “Xiao” Chua, a history lecturer at De La Salle University in Manila, told AFP. He said the damage was particularly painful because the Philippines had already lost so many of its cultural treasures to war, typhoons, earthquakes and poverty-driven neglect.
Chua also noted that while the structures might be restored, the beautiful frescoes, murals and decorations that once covered many of the church walls and ceilings were gone forever, Chua said. “What is truly lost are the paintings. The paintings can never be recovered,” he said.
CEBU: BASILICA OF THE CHILD JESUS
The damage: The limestone bell tower of the church, the latest version of which was built in 1735, was destroyed in the quake.
BOHOL: OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION CHURCH
The damage: The ceiling of the Our Lady of the Assumption church, built in the 1800s and reputed to have a well which gives miraculous water, was caved in.
BOHOL: OUR LADY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
The damage: The facade and bell tower of the Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, which dates back to the 1700s, had crumbled. It was built from stones of coral, quarried from the sea and reputedly plastered together using the white of a million eggs, according to historical records.
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BOHOL: SAN PEDRO CHURCH
The damage: The 17th-century San Pedro church (above), known for its ornately painted ceiling, was entirely caved in, as if a giant fist had punched it from above. AFP
Photos: Jay Directo/AFP
