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Saturday, November 17, 2007

Ruins of Janiuay Church: A Hanging Garden

I lived almost half of my childhood life in Janiuay, a town North of Iloilo City. I can still remember playing at the very ruins of this old brick church when I was still in grade school. It is one of the most mysterious places that remained magnificent even if it was ruined by seasons and war.

Janiuay church was said to be a very beautiful edifice that gave pride to its creators. It was one of the largest churches built in the region with an architecture so fine that it deviated from the usual 'Earthquake Baroque' Styles of the other neighboring churches since it used wooden elements and emphasized lightness through large windows instead of heaviness with thick walls of stone. In the second world war, it was burned down but the solid parts of the church still remained. The whole church was then transformed into a garden made by birds and bats who seeded the ruins with trees, flowering weeds and shrubs. Later on, a man made garden was the built to emphasize this incidental wonder, a hanging garden.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Labawdonggon,

Manami ining blog mo. Keep it up.
While doing my research regarding your cemetery, I was able to read 2 documents that narrated in detail in Kinaray-a, the happenings in Janiuay in the later half of the 19th century. One is by Pedro Barranco; the other, nalipat ako sang name.

Si Inday Hami gali ni a.

Anonymous said...

i remember this church katabi ng isang catholic school na maraming napoposes.. and ung base ng church dati daw kulungan during spanish era i also spent half of my childhood sa san roque....