The church of Bulacan, Bulacan, though beautiful, is quite a challenge to photograph. Even with a big front fenced space and my ultrawide angle lens, a Canon EF-S 10-22mm (16-35mm fullframe equivalent), one can’t still get a good architectural shot. Because of its bulk, width and height, framing the church in its entirety results to a tapered look, keystoning, as one is forced to tilt the camera up at an angle.
One of the beautiful churches in the province of Bulacan is found in the former capital with the same name: Bulacan that is located by the banks of the Bulacan River (yeah, it can get consfusing at first). An imposing site it is, the architecture is said to be a mixture of Baroque and Muslim. The construction of the church and convent started about 1578 and finished before 1762. It was occuppied and later burned by the British during their brief stay (when they also desecrated and looted San Agustin in Intramuros) which was then rebuilt.
The Cathedral of St. William the Hermit in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte with its unproportionally gigantic belfry, is the province’s famous landmark located at the banks of a river. Unlike the other churches in Ilocos, it’s the only one whose simplicity of a facade is almost lost with the overcrowding of columns, filling up vacant space in the lower and middle tier but suprisingly, the pediment is almost bare. Its a confusion, like a series of candles placed on a candelabra.
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The San Agustin Church in Paoay, Ilocos Norte is like an apparition out of nowhere! Part of the UNESCO enscribed World Heritage Site - Baroque Churches of the Philippines, 1993 (like Santa Maria in Ilocos Sur) it is architecturally distinct with its unique blend of Oriental (think of those Asian temples) and European styles to come up with a uniquely Filipino interpretation of baroque. Built in 1710, again by the Augustinians, its a wonderful structure that awes and inspires.
A flight of stairs down the church, at the right side (facing the facade) leads one to the old cemetery ruins. Left, the stone stairs leading up the church. Right, the cracked brick walls that might have been caused by an earthquake or onslaught of time.
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