Paoay Church
UNESCO World Heritage Site Inscribed 1993 As One Of Four Baroque Churches Of The Philippines And The Clearest Example Of Earthquake Baroque Anywhere · Paoay, Ilocos Norte
PAOAY IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE MEETS A SEISMIC ZONE. Finished around 1710, it is squat, enormously wide and braced by TWENTY-FOUR COLOSSAL BUTTRESSES, some of them scrolled like flying buttresses, stepping out from the walls in a way that looks less like decoration than like a building holding itself down. THE STYLE HAS A NAME - EARTHQUAKE BAROQUE - and Paoay is its clearest surviving example anywhere. IT IS ONE OF FOUR CHURCHES INSCRIBED BY UNESCO IN 1993 as the Baroque Churches of the Philippines, alongside Santa Maria, Miagao and San Agustin in Manila. THE BELL TOWER STANDS SEPARATE FROM THE CHURCH, which is the same seismic logic: if it falls, it does not take the nave with it. That tower was used as a lookout by Katipunan rebels in 1898 and by guerrillas in the Second World War. IT IS AN ACTIVE PARISH, not a monument. Walk all the way round before going in; the buttresses are the entire architectural case.
San Agustin Church, Paoay, Ilocos Norte, Paoay, Ilocos Norte, Philippines
PAOAY IS ABOUT THIRTY MINUTES FROM LAOAG, which has an airport with flights from Manila, and is usually visited as part of an Ilocos circuit by hired van - VIGAN IS ROUGHLY NINETY MINUTES SOUTH. THE CHURCH IS AN ACTIVE PARISH AND ENTRY IS FREE; IT KEEPS DAYTIME HOURS AND CLOSES BETWEEN SERVICES at the parish's discretion. MASSES, WEDDINGS AND FUNERALS TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER VISITORS and Sundays are busy throughout - come on a weekday morning if you want the interior quietly. THE EXTERIOR AND THE BUTTRESSES, which are the reason to come, can be walked around at any hour and are floodlit at night. MODEST DRESS IS EXPECTED. The plaza is unshaded and Ilocos is hot; the light on the buttresses is best early or late.