The facade of the church.

The church of San Miguel el Arcángel in Argao was built in 1783 during the time of Father Francisco Espina who was the parish priest from 1782 to 1798. It bears a striking resemblance with the San Guillermo de Aquitania Church in Dalaguete.

Sporting influences of baroque and rococo, the church features a three-level facade that is divided into segments by pilasters. At the lower level are paired pilasters each with a carved-relief of a cherub clinging to an ornamental plant.

Details of the facade.

A framed representation of Saint Michael the Archangel is carved in high-relief at the middle of the triangular pediment. Also at the lower level are carved-relieves of ecclesiastical symbols and texts.

Right above the main entrance is the Spanish royal seal, an indication that this church like many other churches in the country was built out of funds from the Spanish monarchy. Relieves of flowers and cherubim also decorate the facade and the side entrances. More carved-relieves can be seen at the low perimeter stone wall that encloses the church plaza. The relieves are symbols that represent each of the fourteen stations of the cross.

The main altar retablo.

The interior features a semi-cylindrical ceiling made up of planks of wood painted with various biblical scenes and ecclesiastical motifs. The ceiling is supported by corbels with carved decorative cherub heads. At the sanctuary is a large wooden altar screen or retablo while two smaller altar screens can be found in each transept.

The main altar retablo — which no longer bears the original polychrome paint after being applied with gold and silver leaf a few years back — still contains the original images that were intended for it unlike the side altars. The images at the main altar retablo were also applied with gold leaf all over. The side altars however still bear the original colors and may give one a hint of how the large main altar retablo may have looked like.

Retablos at the side altars.

Right across the main altar, at the crossing, hangs what looks like a very large sanctuary lamp. At the northern transept is the tomb of Father Meliton Talegon, a parish priest of Argao in the late-nineteenth century who was once the rector of the Real Colegio delos Padres Agustinos Filipinos de Valladolid, an Augustinian seminary of the Augustinian Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of the Philippines based in Valladolid, Spain.

The pulpit attached to the wall (left); Tomb of Father Meliton Talegon (right).

The narthex features a fairly large choir loft with carved railings and embellishments. An unplayable pipe organ that is purportedly the second oldest in the country can be found on one side while a tribuna or balcony is on the opposite side. The pulpit which has an exquisitely-carved cupula or tornavoz is attached to the epistle side of the nave.

An unplayable pipe organ.

Just outside the church complex are the old municipal hall and a two-level coral stone building which has been adaptively reused as a courthouse. All these structures once formed part of the old pueblo of Argao which was enclosed by a defensive stone wall with bastions. Parts of the wall including the three portals still exist today.

The eastern portal that opens to the sea seems to have doubled as a watchtower since a small door beside it opens to a narrow passageway to the top. Just beside this portal is the mortuary chapel which was recently rediscovered after lying hidden for years behind an out-patient department building of a nearby hospital. This contemporary structure was torn down recently thus finally exposing the chapel.

According to Professor Regalado Trota Jose, a church historian based at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Argao church is perhaps the only one in the country with capilla posas at the four corners of the church plaza. These capilla posas were small chapels or shrines for stopover prayers during a procession and is common in Spanish colonial churches in Mexico. Unfortunately, only one of the four is still intact while the rest have been modified by a former parish priest.