The Santa Monica Parish Church, commonly known as Panay Church, is the oldest church on the island of Panay located in Panay Municipality, Capiz, Philippines. It is also the home of the largest church bell in the country and in Asia, and the third biggest in the world.The church, built in the Filipino Colonial Baroque style with Neo-Classical influence, is a grand structure of coral stone that is 70 meters long, 25 meters wide and 18 meters high. The walls are 3 meters (or about 10 feet) thick and the floor is covered with marble. Its structure is shaped in the form of a Latin cross with one large central altar and four lateral ones, each fitted with gorgeously decorated and gilded retablos of hardwood, decorated with various polychrome statues of high artistic quality. The original structure of the church was built during the term of Fr. Manuel Lopez between 1692 and 1698, but it was reported that a typhoon had ruined it. In 1774, Fr. Miguel Murguia rebuilt the church, but it was also later damaged by a typhoon on 15 January 1875. Fr. Jose Beloso restored the church in 1884.. The original name of the settlement was Bamban and it was changed by the early Spaniards to Panay, a word which means “mouth of the river. This is also the location of a fortress built by Juan de la Isla in late 1570
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 13:57:46 +0000
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