As the song says, you'll definitely comeback to Manila.
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Like any other Colonial Churches, San Agustin Church also has crypts and tombs in the side chapels, and the San Agustin Church has Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, Juan de Salcedo and Juan Luna was interred inside the Church.
The practice of interring people inside Churches had been disallowed by the American Sanitary Authorities during the early days of American Occupation.
The Church of the Augustinians in Intramuros, the last and the sole remaining missionary order in that area is called the Church of Saint Paul. San Agustin is more popular since it is the church of the Order of Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine is a Christian Convert that became the Bishop of Hippo.
If the title “Ultimate Survivor” could be applied to a thing, San Agustin Church will get the title very easily. Being one of the last 16th Century Structures in Manila now (the earliest building dates at 1589), it had withstood several earthquakes including the great earthquakes of 1645 and 1863 that leveled the whole of Manila to the ground.
The secret? The Augustinians applied the same building techniques they had applied in Mexico, which has more weak soil foundation than us considering that Tenochtitlan (the site of Mexico), is actually on a lake. The first editions of San Agustin Church are without the bell tower, making it a boxlike structure. The Augustinian builders considered safety more than beauty that is why the church lacked beauty. Until 1854, that box structure was kept until Architect Luciano Oliver renovated the structure, adding twin belltowers. The left belltower collapsed during the 1880 earthquake. Also, a trompe-loeil painting in the ceiling of the church was painted in 1875. Trompe-loeil painting is a painting technique that makes a flat medium look like carved.
In 1993, along with the Santa Maria Church in Ilocos Sur, Miag-ao Church in Iloilo and San Agustin Church in Paoay, Ilocos Norte, San Agustin Church has been accorded with the UNESCO world heritage site status as The Baroque Churches of the Philippines.
For grave hunters, the cemetery of San Agustin is famous for being the resting place for the conquistadores Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, Juan de Salcedo and Martin de Goiti, Great Filipinos Juan Luna and Pedro Paterno.
Since it is the Lenten Season once again, there is an exhibit of some life-size religious icons inside the San Agustin Church in Intramuros, this is open until March 18. This is for free, so if you want to see the trompe l’oiel interior and the cemetery of the church, this is your chance because the church rarely opens its doors to the public for free.
