The San Bartolome Apostol Parish Church (''Saint Bartholomew, the Apostle Parish Church'') is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

in Nagcarlan, Laguna, Philippines. Its titular saint is Bartholomew and its feast day is celebrated every August 24.

History

Church of Nagcarlang NHCP Historical Marker

Nagcarlan was first colonized in 1571 by Juan de Salcedo, grandson of

Miguel López de Legazpi Miguel López de Legazpi (12 June 1502 – 20 August 1572), also known as '' El Adelantado'' and ''El Viejo'' (The Elder), was a Spaniard who, from the age of 26, lived and built a career in Mexico (then the Viceroyalty of New Spain) and, i ...

. It was founded by Franciscan priests

Juan de Plasencia Miguel Juan de Plasencia () was a Spanish friar of the Franciscan Order. He was among the first group of Franciscan missionaries who arrived in the Philippines on 2 July 1578. He spent most of his missionary life in the Philippines, where he fou ...

and Diego Oropesa in 1578. The church of Nagcarlan was first built from light materials such as nipa and wood in 1583 under the chaplaincy of its first priest, Tomas de Miranda who also pioneered the cultivation of wheat in the country. The church was dedicated to Saint Bartholomew. During Cristobal Torres' term, a second church made of stone and bricks was built in 1752. The multicolored stones and bricks of the church were offered by the people during its construction. The church was partially destroyed by fire in 1781. Immediate repair and reconstruction was done under the term of Anatacio de Argobejo and later by Fernando de la Puebla, who built the four-storey stone and brick bell tower. Further reconstruction using adobe and renovation (including elaborately designed tiles) in 1845 and addition of the choir loft on three strong arches was done under the supervision of Vicente Velloc. The

Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery The Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery ( fil, Libingan sa Ilalim ng Lupa ng Nagcarlan) is a national historical landmark and museum in Barangay Bambang, Nagcarlan, Laguna, Nagcarlan, Laguna (province), Laguna supervised by the National Historical Commi ...

was built also in 1845 and the church rectory in 1850 under Velloc. In the 1990s, Monsignor Jose Barrion led a huge restoration project for the church.

Features

8817San Bartolome Apostol Parish Church of Nagcarlan 23

The tiered-wall Nagcarlan church generally falls under the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style. The design of the facade has a semicircular arched main entrance along with semicircular windows and tall pedestals and

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

s which are also present in the church's side entrance. The four-storey stone and brick bell tower has bells with the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

coat of arms (crossed arms of Christ and St.

Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...

) and Muslim inspired crenelations.

On popular culture

The church was featured in the 1974 movie "Kampanerang Kuba" starring Vilma Santos and its

teleserye Philippine television drama, also known as ''teleserye'', Filipino telenovelas or P-drama, is a form of melodramatic, serialized, televised fiction in the Philippines. ''Teleserye'' is derived from two Filipino words: "tele", short for "''telebis ...

remake, an

ABS-CBN ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast broadcast network, network tha ...

television series starring

Anne Curtis Anne Curtis-Smith(; born 17 February 1985) is a Filipino-Australian actress, model, television host, entrepreneur and recording artist. She is dubbed as the "''Multimedia Superstar''" for her talent and influence. Curtis has received numerou ...

in 2005.

References

Bibliography

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External links