Thursday, August 30, 2007 The Church in Quiapo, Manila
"BECAUSE it is made by the same person who made the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty!"
I say in exasperation as I convince a friend to go with me to the San Sebastian Church in Quiapo, Manila. It was equivalent to dragging a five-year-old to the dentist. The church was unknown, unmentioned and unvisited.
As I rifled through the pages of my Insight guidebook for more facts, I realized that even they failed to mention the San Sebastian Church.
Simply put, very few knew of the history of this church designed by Alexander Gustave Eiffel. The same man who was responsible for the Eiffel Tower in Paris and The statue of Liberty in New York, USA.
Gustave Eiffel was an engineer of modern ingenuity during his time by making "portable bridges" which he sells like DIY kits. His design and construction of wrought iron lattices proved to be the economical choice for bridge constructions and made a big impact to the transportation industry.
Other famous works aside from those already mentioned include the twin edifices of the Porto and Garabit viaduct in the Canal region of France, The Nice observatory in France, Eiffel market in Lisboa, the central railway station in Santiago de Chile and ultimately the San Sebastian Church in Manila, Philippines.
The San Sebastian Church started from a donated lot by Don Bernardino Castillo. The church burned down and was destroyed several times from 1651 to 1880 due to fire and earthquake.
Finally, the priests decided to construct a steel church to prevent further mishap. This was the beginning of "the first all-iron church in the world, the first iron edifice in Asia and the second in the world after Eiffel Towe," as cited in The Order of the Agustinian Recollect (OAR) Parishes Manual.
The steel parts were shipped from the Societe Anonime des Enterprises de Travaux Publiques in Brussels, Belgium -- a classic trademark of Gustave's ingenious design and engineering. The parts were assembled in the Philippines by two Belgian engineers.
Intended to be Gothic in design, stain glass windows were imported from Germany and Trompe l'oeil paintings decorated the interiors. The walls and ceilings were painted by Filipino artist Lorenzo Rocha, the confessionals, pulpit and altars by Lorenzo Guerrero and the statues by Eulogio Garcia.
Raised to the status of a minor basilica by Pope Leo XIII in 1890 and completed in 1891, the Basilica Minore de San Sebastian now commonly known as San Sebastian Church is a national landmark, the only gothic church in the whole of Asia.
Now if only we can appreciate San Sebastian as much as the French adore the Eiffel and the Americans revere Lady Liberty.
