By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff reporter
Piddig, Ilocos Norte—The Sangguniang Bayan here has
declared on Nov. 17 the 204-year-old St. Anne parish church as a
heritage structure.
Sponsored by the committee of
the whole, municipal council ordinance no. 2014-11-175, declaring the old
Piddig church as a historical landmark and natural heritage was unanimously
approved by the body.
Local officials said the St.
Anne Parish Church is characteristically unique because among the old colonial
churches in Ilocos Norte, it is the only one that is built atop a hill and
fronting south instead of west. It is reached through a grand central stairway
that opens to a wide patio or courtyard bordered by stone and
brick fence.
“Despite the closure which
every church officials in the Diocese of Laoag and the parishioners of Piddig
hope would only be temporary, it is the collective desire of all concerned that
the church would be kept that way for its historical value until its
restoration and repair would become feasible,” the ordinance stated.
Records show the wooden
portion of the church and convent were destroyed by fire in 1870.
These may have been
provisional buildings in earlier time. The bricks sections of the church—the buttresses,
including a pair of step buttresses, upper portions of the walls, the baptistery,
and the nave walls behind the façade, as well as the bricks bell tower
and convent—may have been added after the fire.
According to experts,
the mortar used on the walls are made of lime, molasses and egg white, a
revelation that gives enduring proof of the Piddigueños’ hardships and
sacrifices in contributing labor and materials for the construction of the
church.
For safety reason,
engineering experts who inspected the old church building has declared the
church as “unfit for human occupancy” which prompted Laoag Bishop Renato
Mayugba to shut its doors to mass goers on Sept. 14.
Piddig, some 21 km from the
capital Laoag City, is a former “visita” [a community with a chapel] of
neighboring Dingras town. In 1798, Piddig was established as a town and St.
Anne parish was created by the Augustinians in 1810.
During the
Philippine-American War, a five-member team of Filipino guerrillas used the
church as a base to repel American attacks.
The church survived a 6.9
magnitude earthquake in March of 1931 that left big cracks in the walls and
toppled the top level of its bell tower.
During the Japanese
occupation, the convent and the sacristy were burned, leading to the
destruction of its parish records. The church’s facade and its interior were
restored in 1965.
The convent was later
repaired and converted into a parochial school, the St. Anne Academy, church
records showed.
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