A heritage in ruins

The chapel is described as exceptional for having the original brick dome which is possibly one of its kind in the country.

HOW it looked before. The cemetery today (inset).

Built in the late 19th century, the Miagao cemetery chapel is located inside the Catholic cemetery, about half a kilometer southeast of its World Heritage church. It is one of the notable Spanish colonial mortuary capillas in the western Visayas region.

It is also one of at least five Spanish-era structures in the town which, aside from its fortress church, include the Taytay Boni, Puente de Britanico and watchtowers in Baybay Norte, Kirayan Norte and Damilisan villages.

In an article written by University of the Philippines-Visayas professor Marie Joy Rosal-Sumagaysay, the chapel is described as exceptional for having the original brick dome which is possibly one of its kind in the country.

The octagonal shaped chapel, she notes, has wing-like extensions which are burial crypts for some of the important personalities in town with the dome surrounded by decorative carved stone urns.

“While the dome and the walls are made from bricks, the capilla’s pilasters, jambs and carved decorations are of creamy limestone,” she notes, adding that the most interesting features of the structure are the skull and crossbones motifs above the door and inside the capilla which are enclosed in concentric moldings.

But torrential rains in February 2012 due to a tropical depression which weakened its sandy foundation caused much of the structure to collapse.

Residents, however, said prior to the rains, the chapel was already compromised by the infamous 6.7-magnitude earthquake which struck off the coast of Negros island on 6 February 2012. What the rains did was the final blow.

Aside from these, plant growth had also affected the integrity of the edifice.

Most of the front half of the brick and stone chapel was destroyed, leaving only the burial crypts and the altar area which stand to this day.

Blocks of stones from the ruins were set aside in the immediate area, exposed to the elements, but seven years on with the vegetation having grown more, there remains no concrete plans for the structure. Will it be reconstructed or remain as ruins?

A good thing about the ruins is the construction materials used are exposed and may give clues as to where these were sourced. The bricks, for example, have labels of ‘Castellana’ and ‘F. GOSO ILO-ILO’ which suggest their factories of origin.