After the quite disappointing D’Coral beach resort, I looked forward to our next destination. Hopefully it would be much better. We would be going to the town of Paoay in Ilocos Norte. This town is most famous throughout the Philippines for one thing, Paoay Church.
Paoay Church, is also known as Church of St. Augustine in Paoay. This is a massive church made of coral stone and is one of the prime examples of the Philippine earthquake baroque architectural style. The church has massive buttresses supporting the entire church. Some of them a few meters thick. The belltower was built separate from the main church building so that the church building will be spared in the event of the collapse of the belltower.
The construction of Paoay Church started in 1694 and it was damaged several times by earthquakes. The belltower was also used by revolutionaries as a watchtower. Now, it is UNESCO world heritage site.
The location of the church itself is great, since there is a huge green plaza in front of it, and it doesn’t feel like it is the middle of a town. In fact, this is quite different from the rest of the churches found throughout the Philippines. This church is huge and the buttresses are really imposing. It makes you wonder how the earthquakes could have managed to damage something as massive as this.
The interiors of the church wasn’t as inspiring as the outside. In fact it was quite bare. It was as if the roof was under renovation. It hope it was since it already has such an impressive facade to begin with. It also makes me wonder whethere there was enough residents in Paoay to support huge a massive church.
I really like Paoay Church, and it is certainly a welcome view from the unimpressive beaches of Currimao.
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