Restored Cortes Church Complex

To be opened as tourism site?

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Jan 31 (PIA)—The newly restored church of the Santissimo Nombre de Jesus, or the Santo Niño Church in Cortes now presents itself now as a potential tourist stop, and the parish priest here minced no words in asking politicians for support to the dream.

In his message after the grandiose turn-over of the P104.3 million restoration project witnessed by thousands of parishioners, Cortes parish priest Roderick Pizarras hinted the opening of the church and the restored complex into a tourism stop, seeing that similar restored churches are now opened for tourism activities.

While there are very few secondary sources that “record” and that claim on the date of the establishment of the newly restored church on top of the hill, the present day markings that show 1892 and 1896 have spawned controversial debates among church scholars.

A church that is now dated 1892, still sports the double facades which was characteristic among Jesuit-built churches tampered by their fiercest rivals: the Augustinian Recollects.

Cortes church also boasts of its frescoes, one of the best preserved ceiling paintings in Bohol done by Ray Francia as commissioned by the Diocese in the early 1920.

The Cortes Church Complex also feature a single building which stood as the Escuela de Niños Y Niñas; unlike other old Spanish built towns where the school for boys is a separate building from the school for girls.

At the back of the Cortes Church is a large convent, which extends the church into the west to the edge of the cliff.

When many have asked if Cortes were an old Spanish town, how come it does not have a tribuna, or a local government building?

The answer to that incidentally lends a new proof that the church could be much older than its markers would suggest, church historians suggest.

The unusually large convent, also acts as the tribuna then, when the parish priests assigned were also doubling as alcaldes, and that could explain why there is no visible old municipio in the town plaza complex.

While the 2013 earthquake badly affected the church and convent, the restoration project has breathed a new life and attempted to bring back the grandeur of the old convent and tribuna.

The landscaping and the installation of park lights has since created a walkway that could be reminiscent of the Spanish times when senoritas in overflowing bright colored skirts, starched or lacy baros with paraguas daintily walk by.

It may not be as grand as Celle Crisologo of Vigan, but the ambiance is just there. For the budget-conscious tourist who dreams of that mandatory picture at Vigan’s oldest street, a snap shot at the restored walkways and the wooden walled buildings of the Cortes Convent becomes an uncanny alternative.

Over this, Fr Pizarras has asked Congressman Edgar Chatto, the known father of the nearby Abatan River Community Development Tours, to help Cortes package the church as a tourist site.

Also with Congressman Chatto during the turn-over were Governor Arthur Yap, Board Members Ricky Masamayor, Victor Dionisio Balite, Balilihan Mayor Pureza Chatto and Cortes Mayor Iven Lynn Lim.

Also there were National Museum of the Philippines Anna Theresa Labrador, Rev. Fr. Milan Ted Torralba and over 40 priests who concelebrated Bishop Alberto Uy in the thanksgiving mass. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

PRODUCT TESTING. Faculty members of the parochial school Infant King Academy took the time to test the tourism appeal of the newly restored convent walls as a fitting backdrop for their photos. (PIABOhol/foto from MB Olaguir)

APPROXIMATING VIGAN. Infant King Academy teachers used the old convent which used to house the IKA Classrooms as fitting background to a posterity photo as church officials support the idea that the newly restored church and convent be opened for tourism activities. (PIABohol/Foto frm MB Olaguir)