The San Vicente Ferrer Parish Church ( Tagalog: ''Simbahan ng Parokya ni San Vicente Ferrer'';

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

: ''Iglesia Parroquial de San Vicente Ferrer''), commonly referred to as Dupax Church or Dupax del Sur Church, is an 18th-century

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 ...

church located at Brgy. Dopaj, Dupax del Sur,

Nueva Vizcaya Nueva Vizcaya, officially the Province of Nueva Vizcaya ( ilo, Probinsia ti Nueva Vizcaya; gad, Probinsia na Nueva Vizcaya; Pangasinan: ''Luyag/Probinsia na Nueva Vizcaya''; tl, Lalawigan ng Nueva Vizcaya ), is a landlocked province in the ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. The parish church, under the advocation of

Saint Vincent Ferrer Vincent Ferrer, OP ( ca-valencia, Sant Vicent Ferrer , es, San Vicente Ferrer, it, San Vincenzo Ferreri, german: Sankt Vinzenz Ferrer, nl, Sint-Vincent Ferrer, french: Saint Vincent Ferrier; 23 January 1350 – 5 April 1419) was a Valencian D ...

, is under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bayombong. The church complex has been declared a

National Cultural Treasure National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

by the

National Museum of the Philippines The National Museum of the Philippines ( fil, Pambansang Museo ng Pilipinas}) is an umbrella government organization that oversees a number of national museums in the Philippines including ethnographic, anthropological, archaeological, and visu ...

in July 2001.

Parish history

Dupax started as a mission by the Dominican Priests to convert the native group called Isinays into Christianity at around 1602. The Dominicans pushed through with the evangelization of the region until 1704 when the missions were turned over to the

Augustinians Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...

because of lack of personnel. By 1740, the said missions in present-day

were returned to the administration of the Dominicans.

Architecture and design

Architectural history

An earlier church structure of modest design might have been erected before 1773 and records tell that the structure may have been reused as a schoolhouse after the erection of the present church at around 1773 by Father Manuel Corripio, OP. By this time, the church of

Tuguegarao Tuguegarao ( or ), officially the City of Tuguegarao ( ibg, Siyudad nat Tugegaraw; itv, Siyudad yo Tugegaraw; ilo, Siudad ti Tuguegarao; fil, Lungsod ng Tuguegarao ), is a 3rd class Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, component ci ...

by Father Antonio Lobato, OP was already standing. Like the earlier Tuguegarao church, Father Corripio had the church of Dupax made of bricks and even had two kilns made near the church complex, one for firing

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

s and the other for preparing

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

. The current

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

, which mimics the silhouette of the earlier

Tuguegarao Cathedral The Saint Peter Metropolitan Cathedral, also known as the Tuguegarao Cathedral, is an 18th-century Baroque church located along Rizal Street, Barangay Centro 10, Tuguegarao, Cagayan, Philippines. The church, originally built by Dominican friars ...

and is reflected on the churches of Bayombong and Bambang in

, dates back to 1776 while each level of the

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

bears inscription of the years when which it must have been completed. Its original titular patron is the Nuestra Señora del Socorro but was replaced by San Vicente Ferrer soon after the mission was returned to the Dominicans.

Exterior

File:DupaxChurchComplex9671 29.JPG, Belfry File:DupaxChurchComplex9671 38.JPG, Side gate File:FvfDupaxdelSur9826 02.JPG, Side Wall File:FvfDupaxdelSur9826 14.JPG, Back wall The

is described as a reflection of that of

, only less in ornamentation and lower in height. Unlike the church of Tuguegarao, the church of Dupax has no spiral

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 and

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s that offer support to the structure. The façade is divided by

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

s into horizontal segments of plastered

. The first level features a semicircular arched main portal embellished with clay insets. The main doorway is flanked on both sides by two blind windows with an embossed image of the

Holy Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in ot ...

. The second story features a

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...

and two windows framed by embossed carvings. The triangular

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

is divided into two horizontal sections with the lower half pierced with a deeply recessed

oculus Oculus (a term from Latin ''oculus'', meaning 'eye'), may refer to the following Architecture * Oculus (architecture), a circular opening in the centre of a dome or in a wall Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Oculus'' (film), a 2013 American ...

and the upper part featuring a relief of a cross. The entire pediment is capped by undulating cornices and seven

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

s, with the central finial crowned with a cross. To the left of the façade is the four-level, unplastered, rectangular

. The base features saint’s niches similar to that found on the second level of the façade while the second level features long, narrow windows framed with bracket columns. The tower is capped with a decorative parapet and a small cupola surmounted by a cross. The church plaza is enclosed by a low perimeter wall and a replica of an earlier atrial cross.

Interior

File:FvfDupaxChurch9788 29.JPG, Loft with ornate columns File:FvfDupaxdelSur9626 08.JPG, Relief found in the baptistery File:FvfDupaxdelSur9626 19.JPG, Main nave as seen from choir loft File:FvfDupaxdelSur9626 35.JPG, Pulpit File:FvfDupaxdelSur9626 36.JPG, Altar pieces Two focal points inside the church are the pillars supporting the

choir loft A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

. The two, white-washed pillars are embellished with reliefs of

cherub A cherub (; plural cherubim; he, כְּרוּב ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'', likely borrowed from a derived form of akk, 𒅗𒊏𒁍 ''karabu'' "to bless" such as ''karibu'', "one who blesses", a name for the lamassu) is one of the u ...

s, shells, florals and

arabesques The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foli ...

. Similar motifs can also be found on the

baptistery In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...

. The original main

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

and

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

are still intact but the heads of the images in the altarpiece are believed to be replicas of the

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...

ones stolen over the course of the church’s history.

References

External links

*
Archival Photos of the San Vicenter Ferrer Church from the Filipinas Heritage Library
{{National Cultural Treasures of the Philippines, state=collapsed Roman Catholic churches in Nueva Vizcaya Spanish Colonial architecture in the Philippines National Cultural Treasures of the Philippines Spanish colonial infrastructure in the Philippines Baroque architecture in the Philippines