This is the fourth of several posts that will feature Richard E. Ahlborn’s photographs of historical churches in Cebu.

Photo courtesy of The Latin American Library, Tulane University, Richard E. Ahlborn Collection. Published in this blog in agreement with The Latin American Library. All photos in this post may not be used without first obtaining the written permission of The Latin American Library.

Bishop Sebastian de Foronda (1723-1728) once described the Cebu Cathedral as nothing but a barn overrun by plants and grasses. He may have been right after all since the cathedral looked nothing more than an oversized warehouse if not for the belfry and the facade which gave it the distinct look of a church. Vintage photos show it with plants growing at certain parts of the structure aside from the roofing that badly needed repair and the broken windows that had to be replaced. It was not until the 1930s when the cathedral was improved for it to be worthy of the status as the seat of the diocese that gave birth to Christianity in the Far East. Continue Reading »

This is the third of several posts that will feature Richard E. Ahlborn’s photographs of historical churches in Cebu.

Photo courtesy of The Latin American Library, Tulane University, Richard E. Ahlborn Collection. All photos in this post may not be used without first obtaining the written permission of The Latin American Library.

Pardo’s Sto. Tomás de Villanueva Church also had a slightly different and unusual interior as what it is now. Basing on Richard E. Alhborn’s photo of it, there used to be a balcony on each of the four portions of the crossing. The balconies were supported from the floor by columns. I’m not sure what these balconies were really for but it could have just simply functioned as tribunas. Continue Reading »

This is the second of several posts that will feature Richard E. Ahlborn’s photographs of historical churches in Cebu.

Photo courtesy of The Latin American Library, Tulane University, Richard E. Ahlborn Collection. All photos in this post may not be used without first obtaining the written permission of The Latin American Library.

The church of the Nuestra Señora Virgen dela Regla would have been a marvelous sight to behold had it not been literally bulldozed upon the instance of a Dutch missionary in the early 1960s. Unique among all other churches in Cebu, the main facade featured several blind niches in the first and second levels. In the middle at the second level, a niche contained a wooden relief of the Virgin Mary which, fortunately, was saved and now forever rests at the University of San Carlos Museum. Continue Reading »

This is the first of several posts that will feature Richard E. Ahlborn’s photographs of historical churches in Cebu.

Photo courtesy of The Latin American Library, Tulane University, Richard E. Ahlborn Collection. The photo may not be used without first obtaining the written permission of The Latin American Library.

The Sto. Niño Church, now the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño in Cebu City, once had a very different interior as what most people are used to seeing now. The crossing had four huge arches, a very Romanesque feature. Side altar retables or retablos were to be found at each transept. A pulpit with finely carved details was attached to the epistle side of the nave near the crossing while a pipe organ was found at the gospel side near the choir loft. Continue Reading »

The Heritage of Cebu has inked a publication agreement with The Latin American Library of Tulane University to feature Richard E. Ahlborn’s photographs of historical churches in Cebu. Ahlborn came to the Philippines in 1965 to conduct a photographic survey of Filipino-Hispanic architecture and art in the Philippines.

The photographs are rare inasmuch as it features certain portions of existing historical churches in Cebu in its most original form. Post-Vatican II, a number of Spanish colonial churches in Cebu and elsewhere in the Philippines underwent a flurry of “ill-advised” renovations and expansions. The modifications sometimes depended on the taste of the parish priest who is assigned to a particular church. Some photographs also feature valuable church furnishings that are already gone since it have either been sold (sometimes at the instance of the parish priest), stolen or destroyed.

This series will start today and will run for several weeks.