1.

Barasoain Church
Barasoain Church (also known as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish) is a Roman Catholic church built in 1630 in
Malolos City, Bulacan. Having earned the title as the Cradle of Democracy in the East, the most important religious
building in the Philippines, and the site of the First Philippine Republic, the Church is proverbial for its historical
importance among Filipinos.
Founded by Augustinian Missionaries in 1859, the church is also renowned for its architectural design and internal
adornments. The original church was burned during the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution however, it was
renovated. It is about 42 kilometers away from Manila.
Etymology
The term "Barasoain" was derived from a place in Spain to which the missionaries found the place in Malolos in
striking similarity. When the Spanish-Filipino revolution broke-out, revolutionaries coined the term "baras ng
suwail", which means "dungeon of the defiant".

(Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish)

"The Cradle of Democracy in the East"
Basic information
Location: Paseo del Congreso, Barangay San Gabriel, Malolos City, Bulacan,
Philippines
Affiliation: Roman Catholic
Year consecrated: 1630
Ecclesiastical or organizational status: Suffragan Diocese
Heritage designation: "Seat of the First Philippine Republic"
Leadership: Bishop
Architectural description
Architectural type: Church
Architectural style: Neo-Classic

2.
Manila Cathedral
The Manila Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica (also known as the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception
and informally as Manila Cathedral) is a prominent Latin Rite Roman Catholic basilica located in Manila,
Philippines, honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the Patroness of the
Philippines. Located in the Intramuros district of Manila in the Philippines. Originally a parish church owned by the
diocese of Mexico in 1571, it became a separate diocese with its own bishop. The cathedral serves both as the
Prime Basilica of the Philippines and highest seat of Archbishop in the country. The cathedral has been damaged
and destroyed several times since the original cathedral was built in 1581; the sixth and current incarnation of the
cathedral was completed in 1958 and was consecrated as a minor basilica in 1981. It is the highest seat of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of the Philippines, the current Archpriest of the Cathedral is Cardinal Gaudencio
Rosales.

Manila Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica
Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception
Manila Cathedral

Basic information
Location: 14.59147N 120.97356E
Affiliation: Roman Catholic
District: Archdiocese of Manila
Ecclesiastical or organizational status: Minor Basilica
Architectural description
Architectural type: Cathedral
Architectural style: Neo-Romanesque
Groundbreaking: 1954
Completed: 1958

3.
Paoay Church

Paoay Church

Paoay Church (also known as the St. Augustine Church in Paoay) is a historical church located in Paoay, Ilocos
Norte. During the Philippine Revolution in 1898, its coral stone bell tower was used by the Katipuneros as an
observation post. Paoay Church is part of the UNESCO World Heritage List. It currently is a property of the Diocese
of Laoag, Ilocos Norte.

Construction of Paoay Church was started by the Augustinian friars in 1694. It was completed in 1894 led by Fr.
Antonio Estavillo and was re-dedicated in 1894.
Architecture
The Church is a unique combination of Gothic, Baroque and Oriental designs. Its facade reveals Gothic affinity, its
gables show Chinese elements, while the niches topping the walls suggest Javanese influence (reminiscent of the
famous Boroboudur Temple).
Known as the Earthquake Baroque church in the Philippines, Paoay church was built of baked bricks, coral rocks,
salbot (tree sap) and lumber, and has 24 carved massive buttresses for support. It is an architectural solution to
the area's challenging, natural setting. Both sides of the nave are lined with the most voluminous stone buttresses
seen around the islands. Large coral stones were used for the lower level while bricks were used for the upper
levels of the church. The walls are 1.67 meters thick made of the same materials. Its bell tower, which is detached
from its main building, is made of coral stone. It stands a safe distance away to spare the sanctuary in case of
collapse. Originally, the church roof was thatched; and it is conjectured so that buttresses not only support walls
but give roof access during fire and typhoon.
The rectangular facade of the church is supported by four pillasters which extend from the first to the second level
outlining the arched doorway. Huge volutes or buttresses and low-relief lines are found on each side of the facade.
In Fr. Pedro Galende's book, he described the massiveness of the structure is balanced by its grace and fluidity. The
church adapts the pyramidal design of the baroque style. Its details are inspired from by seal of Saint Agustine, the
emblem of the king of Spain, the logo of the Pope, the init-tao or the sun god, and stylized Chinese clouds.

4.
Miag-ao Church
Miag-ao Church (also known as the Church of Santo Tomas de Villanueva) in the town of Miagao, Iloilo is an
Augustinian-built baroque church and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built between 1787 and 1797, its fortress-
like design suggests its dual purpose as a place of worship and as a fort used in defending the town against moro
raiders.

Architecture
Miag-ao Church exhibits various architectural design with the predominance of baroque and local artistic
elements. Its facade employs diverse relief motifs, and period styles. These are carved on local carbonaceous
limestone of soft yellow ochre color.
The adobe used in building the church is made from silt and clay that can only be found in this part of Iloilo, giving
the building a unique warm-yellowish glow. Flying buttresses from the side of the church walls are typical of the
"earthquake baroque" design reminiscent of churches in Ilocos, particularly Panay Church and Vigan Cathedral.
The church's simple interior is highlighted by a striking gold-plated retablo.
In Baroque-Romanesque style, the church sinks six meters deep into the ground with walls one-and-a-half meters
thick and buttresses three times thicker. A heavy frieze and decorative valusters separate the first level from the
second as well as the integrated pediment. Columns flank the arched entrance and the lateral sections. The facade
has a very subdued vertical movement, mostly overwhelmed by the sweeping horizontal curves and arched portals
and saints' niches. The strong horizontal movement of the first level is contrasted by the sharp rise of the
pediment. The whole structure is flanked by massive bell towers that almost resemble medieval castle towers. The
two structures are dissimilar in design because they were commissioned by the two different parish priests.

5.
San Agustin Church, Manila
San Agustin Church is a Roman Catholic church under the auspices of The Order of St. Augustine, located inside the
historic walled city of Intramuros in Manila. Completed by 1607, it is the oldest church still standing in the
Philippines. No other surviving building in the Philippines has been claimed to pre-date San Agustin Church.
In 1993, San Agustin Church was one of four Philippine churches constructed during the Spanish colonial period to
be designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO , under the classification "Baroque Churches of the Philippines".
It had been named a National Historical Landmark by the Philippine government in 1976.
San Agustin Church

Basic information
Location: Intramuros, Manila, Philippines
Geographic coordinates: 143520N 1205829E
Affiliation: Roman Catholic
Year consecrated: 1607 Ecclesiastical or organizational status church
Status: active
Heritage designation: 1993
Architectural description
Architect(s): Juan Macias
Architectural type: Church
Architectural style: baroque
Groundbreaking: 1586
Completed: 1607
Specifications
Length: 67.15 metres (220.3 ft)
Width: 24.93 metres (81.8 ft)
Materials: adobe stones

Features

The ornately carved main door of San Agustin Church.
San Agustn Church measures 67.15 meters long and 24.93 meters wide. Its elliptical foundation has allowed it to
withstand the numerous earthquakes that have destroyed many other Manila churches. It is said that the design
was derived from churches built by the Augustinians in Mexico. The facade is unassuming and even criticized as
"lacking grace and charm", but it has notable baroque touches, especially the ornate carvings on its wooden doors.
The church courtyard is graced by several granite sculptures of lions, which had been gifted by Chinese converts to
Catholicism.
The church interior is in the form of a Latin cross. The church has 14 side chapels and a trompe-l'il ceiling painted
in 1875 by Italian artists Cesare Alberoni and Giovanni Dibella. Up in the choir loft are hand-carved 17th-century
seats of molave, a beautiful tropical hardwood.
The church contains the tomb of Spanish conquistadors Miguel Lpez de Legazpi, Juan de Salcedo and Martn de
Goiti, as well as several early Spanish Governors-General and archbishops. Their bones are buried in a communal
vault near the main altar. The painter Juan Luna, and the statesmen Pedro A. Paterno and Trinidad Pardo de
Tavera are among the hundreds of laypersons whose remains are also housed within the church.
San Agustin Church also hosts an image of Our Lady of Consolation (Nuestra Senora de Consolacion y Correa),
which was canonically crowned by Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jaime Sin in 2000.

6.
Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila
The Basilica Minore de San Sebastin, better known as San Sebastin Church, is a Roman Catholic minor basilica in
Manila, the Philippines. It is the seat of the Parish of San Sebastian and the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt.
Carmel.
Completed in 1891, San Sebastin Church is noted for its architectural features. An example of the revival of Gothic
architecture in the Philippines, it is the only all-steel church or basilica in Asia. It has also been implausibly reputed
to be the first prefabricated building in the world, and more plausibly claimed as the only prefabricated steel
church in the world. In 2006, San Sebastian Church was included in the Tentative List for possible designation as a
World Heritage Site. It was designated as a National Historical Landmark by the Philippine government in 1973.
San Sebastin Church is under the care of The Order of the Augustinian Recollects, who also operate a college
adjacent to the basilica. It is located at Plaza del Crmen, at the eastern end of Claro M. Recto Street, in Quiapo,
Manila.
Basilica Minore de San Sebastin


Basic information
Location: Quiapo, Manila, Philippines
Geographic coordinates: 143558N 1205920E
Affiliation: Roman Catholic
Year consecrated: 1891
Ecclesiastical or organizational status: Minor basilica
Status: active
Architectural description
Architect(s): Genaro Palacios
Architectural type: Basilica
Architectural style: Neo-Gothic
Groundbreaking: 1888
Completed: 1891
Specifications
Materials: steel, mixed sand, gravel & cement

Gustave Eiffel's role
Gustave Eiffel may have been involved in the design of San Sebastian Church.

It has long been reputed that Gustave Eiffel, the French engineer behind the Eiffel Tower and the steel structure
within the Statue of Liberty, was involved in the design and construction of San Sebastin Church.
The connection between Eiffel and San Sebastin Church was reportedly confirmed by historian Ambeth Ocampo
while doing research in Paris. Ocampo likewise published a report that in the 1970s, the famed architect I.M. Pei
had visited Manila to confirm reports he had heard that Eiffel had designed an all-steel church in Asia. When Jams
inspected San Sebastin Church, he reportedly pronounced that the metal fixtures and overall structure were
indeed designed by Eiffel.

Definitely it is said that the official catalogues of Eiffel make possible reference to the design and exportation of a
church in Manila in 1875, or thirteen years before construction of San Sebastin Church actually began.[6] If true,
this would still not preclude the possibility that Eiffel had designed the metal structure of the church, with Palacios
completing the actual design of the entire church.
Features
As the only all-steel church in Asia, San Sebastin Church has two openwork towers and steel vaulting. The
basilica's central nave is twelve meters from the floor to the dome, and thirty-two meters to the tip of the spires.
The interior of the church displays groined vaults in the Gothic architecture style. The steel columns, walls and
ceiling were painted by Lorenzo Rocha and his students to give off a faux-marble and jasper appearance. Trompe
l'oeil paintings were used to decorate the interiors of the church. True to the Gothic revival spirit of the church are
its confessionals, pulpit, altars and five retablos as designed by Lorenzo Guerrero, as well as Rocha. The sculptor
Eusebio Garca carved the statues of holy men and women. Six holy water fonts were constructed for the church,
each crafted from marble obtained from Romblon.
Above the main altar is an image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, given to the church by Carmelite sisters from
Mexico City in 1617[citation needed]. The image withstood all the earthquakes and fires which had destroyed
previous incarnations of San Sebastin Church, but its ivory head was stolen in 1975.


Terms
Earthquake Baroque
Earthquake Baroque is a style of Baroque architecture found in places like the Philippines and Guatemala, which
suffered destructive earthquakes during the 17th century and 18th century, where large public buildings, such as
churches were rebuilt in a Baroque style. Similar events lead to the Pombaline architecture in Lisbon following the
1755 Lisbon earthquake and Sicilian Baroque in Sicily following the 1693 earthquake.
Characteristics
In the Philippines, destruction of earlier churches from frequent earthquakes have made the church proportion
lower and wider; side walls were made thicker and heavily buttressed for stability during shaking. The upper
structures were made with lighter materials.[2]
Bell towers are usually lower and stouter compared to towers in less seismically active regions of the world.[3]
Towers have thicker girth in the lower levels, progressively narrowing to the topmost level.

Gothic Revival architecture (Neo-Gothic)
The Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or Neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that began in
the 1740s in England. Its popularity grew rapidly in the early nineteenth century, when increasingly serious and
learned admirers of neo-Gothic styles sought to revive medieval forms, in contrast to the neoclassical styles
prevalent at the time.

Romanesque Revival architecture (Neo-Romanesque)
Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century[1]
inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, however,
Romanesque Revival buildings tended to feature more simplified arches and windows than their historic
counterparts.
An early variety of Romanesque revival style known as Rundbogenstil ("Round-arched style") was popular in
German lands[2] and in the German diaspora beginning in the 1830s. By far the most prominent and influential
American architect working in a free "Romanesque" manner was Henry Hobson Richardson. In the United States,
the style derived from examples set by him are termed Richardsonian Romanesque, of which not all are
Romanesque revival.
Characteristics
Popular features of these revival buildings are round arches, semi-circular arches on windows, and belt courses.
Like its influencing Romanesque style, the Romanesque Revival Style was widely used for churches, and
occasionally for synagogues such as the Congregation Emanu-El of New York on Fifth Avenue built in 1929.[4]
During the 19th century the architecture selected for Anglican churches depended on the churchmanship of
particular congregations. Whereas high churches and Anglo-Catholic, which were influenced by the Oxford
Movement, were built in Gothic Revival architecture, low churches and broad churches of the period were often
built in the Romanesque Revival style.
The style was quite popular for university campuses in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, especially
in the United States and Canada; well known examples can be found at the University of California, Los Angeles,
University of Southern California, University of Denver, and the University of Toronto.

Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-
18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in
its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing features of Late Baroque. In its purest form it is a
style principally derived from the architecture of Classical Greece and the architecture of the Italian architect
Andrea Palladio. In form, Neoclassical architecture emphasizes the wall rather than chiaroscuro and maintains
separate identities to each of its parts.
Characteristics
High neoclassicism was an international movement. Though neoclassical architecture employs the same classical
vocabulary as Late Baroque architecture, it tends to emphasize its planar qualities, rather than sculptural volumes.
Projections and recessions and their effects of light and shade are more flat; sculptural bas-reliefs are flatter and
tend to be enframed in friezes, tablets or panels. Its clearly articulated individual features are isolated rather than
interpenetrating, autonomous and complete in themselves.
International neoclassical architecture was exemplified in Karl Friedrich Schinkel's buildings, especially the Old
Museum in Berlin, Sir John Soane's Bank of England in London and the newly built White House and Capitol in
Washington, DC in the United States. The Scots architect Charles Cameron created palatial Italianate interiors for
the German-born Catherine II the Great in St. Petersburg.
Italy clung to Rococo until the Napoleonic regimes brought the new archaeological classicism, which was embraced
as a political statement by young, progressive, urban Italians with republican leanings.

Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against (a counterfort) or projecting from a wall which serves to
support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing
support to act against the lateral (sideways) forces arising out of the roof structures that lack adequate bracing.
Buttress ground plans

Angled buttress

Clasping or clamped
buttress
Diagonal or 'french'
buttress

Setback buttress

Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material
(sticks, straw, and/or manure), which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe
buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for some
of the oldest existing buildings in the world. In hot climates, compared with wooden buildings, adobe buildings
offer significant advantages due to their greater thermal mass, but they are known to be particularly susceptible to
earthquake damage.






References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barasoain_Church
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_Cathedral
http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Paoay_Church
http://bestphilippinetouristspots.com/10-famous-old-churches-in-the-philippines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Agustin_Church,_Manila
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_Baroque
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_Revival_architecture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassical_architecture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttress
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanesque_Revival_architecture