Baroque Churches of the Philippines

Baroque Churches of the Philippines

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Location	Philippines
Includes	Miagao Church, Paoay Church, San Agustin Church, Our Lady of the Assumption Church
Criteria	ii, iv
Reference	677
Coordinates	10°38′31″N 122°14′08″E / 10.64191°N 122.23549°E / 10.64191; 122.23549
Inscription	1993 (17th Session)
Location of Baroque Churches of the Philippines
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The Baroque Churches of the Philippines are a collection of four Spanish-era baroque churches in the Philippines, which were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1993. The churches are also considered as national cultural treasures of the country. The Philippines, following its ratification of the convention on September 19, 1985, made its historical and natural sites eligible for inclusion on the list. The Philippines had its first sites included in 1993, and since 1999, has six sites on the list spanning nine locations. Of those six sites, three are cultural and three natural. In 2015, the 28 sites in the 'Tentative List' were revised. Currently, the Tentative List for possible nomination in the future contains nineteen submissions.

The collection is composed of the following:

The San Agustin Church in Manila, also known as The Church of the Immaculate Conception of San Agustín was the first church built on the island of Luzon in 1571, immediately after the Spanish conquest of Manila. A site within the district of Intramuros was assigned to the Augustinian Order, the first to evangelize in the Philippines. In 1587 the impermanent earliest building in wood and palm fronds was replaced by a stone church and monastery in stone, the latter becoming the Augustinian mother house in the Philippines.

It was the only structure in Intramuros to survive the Liberation of Manila in 1945. Miag-ao became an independent parish in 1731, when a simple church and convento were built. However, destruction of the town by Muslim pirates in 1741 and 1754 led to the town being rebuilt in a more secure location. The new church, constructed in 1787-97, was built as a fortress, to withstand further incursions. It was, however, damaged severely by fire during the revolution against Spain in 1898 and in the Second World War. Two bell towers were added in 1854, but the northern one cracked in the 1880 earthquake and had to be demolished. In the interior of the church the wall paintings date from the 19th century, but they overlie the original tempera murals.