Holy Week Walking Tour | Miag-ao Church (Santo Tomas de Villanueva) | Procession | ASMR

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The Miagao Church stands as a living legacy of the culture and way of life of the people of Miagao centuries ago, anchored in a strong foundation of Christian faith.

A World Heritage Site

UNESCO has selected Miagao Church as one of the World Heritage Sites as it exhibits numerous architectural styles predominating in baroque architecture and local artistic elements.

The base of the church extends 20 feet deep into the ground, and four meter thick buttresses support it's one-and-a-half-metre-thick walls. Since the town of Miagao was continuously overrun by the "Moros" in the mid-18th century for almost a decade, the church had to be moved to a more secure place, so a new fortified church was constructed at the highest point of the town to protect against possible invaders. But it's unique ochre color that makes this church even more distinctive.

The church was constructed using a mixture of Spanish Baroque and Romanesque Early Medieval architectural styles, with the inclusion of Chinese, Muslim, and local Filipino elements in its facade decoration. St. Christopher, for example, wears a traditional Filipino dress, and is surrounded by decorations such as papaya and palm trees that are very common in the country. The distinctive yellow-ochre color of the Miagao Church comes from the introduction of coral, ground into dust, and egg whites into the adobe mix. Spaniards typically use egg whites to make morter for their churches, to make the mixture more robust.

The present-day Miagao Church is the third church built since its establishment in 1731. To preserve the church, it underwent restoration in 1960 and completed in 1962. Miagao Church was declared a national shrine.

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