Details

Heritage Churches of the Cagayan River Basin is a comprehensive architectural survey of the major heritage churches of the Spanish colonial era that were built due to the evangelization efforts along the Río Grande de Cagayan, the longest and most capacious river system of the Philippines. This surveying of the architectonic elements of these beautiful houses of worship starts at the river’s mouth, where the earliest Spanish colonization took place, proceeding upriver until reaching the headwaters at the foothills of the Caraballo mountains.

Each survey encompasses the history of a church and its urban settlement, the description of its features, the measurement and typification of its major architectonic elements, and finally a critique of its aesthetics and conservation aspects. Copiously illustrated with specially drawn-up floor plans, photographs, and archival material, this art book not only sheds light on the church builders, the Dominican order in particular, but also the anonymous artists and builders who together worked on a hauntingly original and distinctive regional constructive art to form a unique “Cagayan style” from the late sixteenth until the nineteenth century. Together, these churches remain as witnesses to more than three centuries of faith and the proud heritage of the townsfolk of the Cagayan, Isabela, and Nueva Vizcaya provinces.

REVIEW

“Galván took down the measurements of the churches all along the Cagayan river basin and more, created this body of work unique for any region in the country. The union of physical observation with historical studies makes this book a viable appreciation of our church cultural heritage.”

—Regalado Trota José, Archivist, Archivo de la Universidad de Santo Tomás, Manila

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Javier Gálvan Guijo obtained his architectural degree and his doctorate at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid with his dissertation, “Arquitectura y urbanismo de origen español en el Pacífico occidental.” Galván has written and lectured widely on Spanish, Philippine, and Pacific architectural heritages, spearheading the organization of the First International Congress on Fil-Hispanic Architecture and co-editing its papers in the anthology Endangered (2005). He has been the director of Instituto Cervantes de Rabat (Morocco) and Orán (Algeria) and twice the director of Manila (2001–2006 and 2019–present). In recognition of his efforts to promote Hispano-Filipino patrimony and Spanish-Philippine relations, he was conferred the Order of Presidential Merit by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica by King Juan Carlos I.

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