page_title: Baclayon Church
section_title: Interiors
hierarchical_section_title: Baclayon Church / Features / Interiors
caption_attribution_description: Interior of Baclayon Church during a wedding. This is a photo of Cultural Heritage Monument in the Philippines number PH-07-0001
context_page_description: La Purisima Concepcion de la Virgen Maria Parish Church, commonly known as Baclayon Church, is a Roman Catholic Church in the municipality of Baclayon, Bohol, Philippines within the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tagbilaran. Baclayon was founded by the Jesuit priest Juan de Torres and Gabriel Sánchez in 1596, and became the oldest Christian settlement in Bohol. It was elevated as a parish in 1717 and the present coral stone church was completed in 1737. The Augustinian Recollects succeeded the Jesuits in 1768 and heavily renovated the church since then.
  The church was declared a National Cultural Treasure by the National Museum of the Philippines and a National Historical Landmark by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. Together with the churches of Maragondon, Loboc and Guiuan, the Baclayon Church was formerly included for the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List of the Philippines since 1993 under the collective group of Jesuit Churches of the Philippines. When a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Bohol and other parts of Central Visayas in 2013, the church building sustained major damage.
context_section_description: The church entrance is flanked by an arcade leading to the narthex. The entrance to the choir loft and the carosa for the images of saints is found on the right and left side of the narthex respectively. Since the floor inside is lower than the ground outside, a new floor made of wood (particularly molave) was installed in 1852 which was later replaced by brick tiles from 1874 to 1875.
  Reddish paintings on wooden panels commissioned by Father Antonio Ubeda from 1856 to 1859 can be found inside the church. These are the Ascension of Our Lord and Pentecost on the doorway; and two portraits of the Doctors of the Church. A third portrait belonging to the set of Doctors of the Church is on the church museum while the fourth portrait is lost. The paintings Agony in the Garden and Crowning of Thorns, also commissioned by Father Úbeda, is currently housed at the San Agustin Museum in Intramuros, Manila. The works of art are done by Liberato Gachalian.
  Murals, mostly replaced by monochromatic tin sheets, were also present on the church's ceilings. Though most ceiling paintings were unpreserved, an original work of Max Aya-ay in 1957 can still be seen on portions of the crossing. The walls were originally adorned with wooden images of Stations of the Cross commissioned by Father Ubeda in 1859 which were later replaced by European-made images.
  A Baroque and Neoclassical pulpit made in the 1870s is located on the right side (epistle) of the church, facing the altar. Connected to the convent is the tribuna, a private area for guests and visiting priests on the epistle side. A silver sanctuary lamp, dated 1835 and additional details such as sconce added in 1874, is hanged on the crossing.
caption: Inside Baclayon Church
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