Jun 14 2008
The stupidity of uninformed modernization
Uninformed renovators are the greatest enemies of heritage conservation. True, we modernize to keep pace with the times but not at the expense of our heritage and culture. There will always be a compromise and I believe that the past and the future will always go hand in hand together.
Here are some archival photos of two churches in Cebu that fell victim to the modernizing efforts of those who were supposed to be entrusted to take care of them.
Photos below from Trizer Dale Mansueto’s Flickr site.
The Church of the Our Lady of the Rule
(Lapu-Lapu City, Mactan Island, Cebu)
A church with a facade full of niches for carved relieves of saints. Home to the image of the Our Lady of the Rule (Birhen sa Regla), among the most venerated images in Cebu after the Sto. Niño. This magnificent stone church was demolished during the 1960s by Dutch priests who were running it then to pave way for the construction of a new church made of cement — and hollow blocks. It was said that the priests later regretted what they did because the bulldozer had a very hard time destroying the thick stone walls.
Parts of the main altar are on display at the University of San Carlos Museum.
Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception/Our Lady of Mt. Carmel
(Cebu City, Cebu)
The church and convent of the Recollects in Cebu. This was demolished in 1965 by the Recollects to pave way for the construction of an expansion building — housing a new church and other facilities — that would be connected to the existing school building which was built on the former site of the convent.
The original main altar retablo of the old church is currently on display at the San Agustin Museum in Intramuros, Manila.
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July 20th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
I was a working student at that time before the Recollect Church was made into a parish. Since then, I heard old stories now and then from old parishioners and candle vendors that for a while, there was a white lady crying in the sidewalk along Leon Kilat and Magallanes Sts. early in the morning because her church is gone. And from the stories from previous working students will also testify that there are some weird sounds and moaning on the convent stairway, because there were bones and skeletons that were once deposited at the top of the convent while waiting for a permanent place. As you may know, there was a small cemetery inside the compound of the old church that has to be demolished, too. If you happened to visit the “new” church, you will find a room of bones and skeletons with names and dates to testify that these were from the old cemetery. The room is at the side of the altar facing old Leon Kilat St. I work there before, so I know the place. I have not been there for almost 3 decades now. I hope to be back. I went back few years ago, but I was scared of the place, since it does not look like a safe area anymore. Once in a while, we have snatchers even inside the church, but it was not like the years when we were still there that we always maintain even the sidewalk.