AHP GOES TO LUCENA, TAYABAS, LUCBAN

St Ferdinand Church, Lucena City

The 29th of April was a great day for going out of town. It was the start of a long weekend marking the Labor Day holiday on 1 May, 2017. How apropos that the Advocates for Heritage Preservation would hold  a heritage tour visiting the historic sites of Lucena, Tayabas and Lucban, Quezon. Six vans and a few privately owned vehicles convoyed  to pick up participants at the Centris and Petron station in Makati City at five in the morning to get to the province of Quezon by ten a.m.

As usual, unpredictable traffic obstructions and detours delayed our arrival to our first stop  at the St. Ferdinand church. Once we got there, the AHP  family armed with cameras and mobile phones lost no time in snapping photos of the site taking in as many details a s possible. This did not rule out the use of selfie sticks either for the obligatory selfies and groufies of close friends among the party.

In 1571-72 Juan de Salcedo reached Tayabas with two Franciscan Friairs: Juan de Pacencia and Diego Oropesa who began establishing the town of Tayabas up until 1580-1583. Lucena was one of the towns  which they called "Beunavista" (self explanantory*). 

 

AHP founder Tito Encarnacion

Later on, the town was renamed Oroquieta. The muslim pirates raided the town of Oroquieta along with other coastal towns. The Spaniards had no recourse but to establish forts along the seashore as a line od defense. Eventually the area was called Cotta which was a Spanish word for fort.

Pol Foronda in the St Ferdinand belfry

By the 5th of November, 1879 the Orden Superior Civil adopted the name Lucena in honor of Fr, Mariano Granja in Andalucia, Spain. Fr Granja was responsible for the development of the barrio which became aparish in 1881. Lucena later becamean independent municipality on 1 June, 1882

General Miguel Malvar took control of Tayabas in 15 August, 1898 after Gen Emilio Aguinaldo declared independence on 12 June, 1898. Don Crisanto Marquez became Lucena's first duly elected Municipal presidentduring the 1st Philippine republic.

Lucena became the site of a bloody war between American and Filipino soldiers in 1899. The spaniards established a civil government in the country by 12-March- 1901. The provincial capital was transferred from Tayabas to Lucena.

In WWII, the Japanese occupied Lucena on 27, December, 1941 just 19 days after they set foot on Philippine soil. but by 25 January 1945 the Hunter ROTC guerrillas drove away the Japanese even before the Americans arrived. They had to wait for the American Liberation Forces to hand them freedom. By then the province had been renamed Tayabas.

Capitolyo

By virtue of Rep. Act. No. 327 through the efforts of the late Congressman Manuel Enverga, Lucena was made into a Chartered City and inaugurated on 19 August, 1962.

The Cathedral of St. Ferdinand was founded on 1 March 1881. It was built from May 1882 -July 1884. It was gutted by fire on 24 May, 1887 and rebuilt six months later. Inside are tromp l'oeil paintings. Lucena City is located 136.66 km ( a three-hour drive) from Manila.*

Being a Saturday the municipal Office of Tayabas was closed and so the AHP family had to make do with photo ops on the gardens and the grounds of the Tayabas office. Then it was off to the Minor Basilica of St Michael.

Basilica Minore of St Michael

This 103 meter long basilica, the best preserved and the most beautifully decorated church complex in the province, is also the longest Spanish colonial church in the country and is also one of the oldest. It was first built by the Franciscans in 1585, repaired in 1590 by Pedro Bautista, changed into brick in 1600, destroyed by an earthquake in 1743 and later rebuilt and enlarged in 1856 by building a transept and a cupola. The  church's roof was changed to galvanized sheets in 1894 and its belfry contains an eighteenth century clock (the only one of its kind in the country) that chimes every thirty minutes. It was madeinto a Minor Basilica on18 October 1988.

The interior, a good example of the neo-classical style, has an antique organ, seven altars done in the Neo- Classical style. a balcony over the altar and a now unused tunnel from the altar. The adjacent convent, used as a Japanese garrison during WWII, was damamged by bomb shrapnel in 1945. The church is now listed as a National cultural treasure. Tayabas is located 147.28kmfrom Manila and 10.62km north of Lucena City.*

 Around two blocks down is a lilac painted structure called an Ermita. It was a visita or a little chapel where locals pray for special requests, As is typical of ermitas, this one was almost bare but it was unique in its cupcake colored exterior. 

ermita

Lunch was at Palaisdaan floating restaurant, also in Tayabas. It's located a few meters off the Kamay ni Hesus pilgrimage site. Its a nondescript, unpretentious restaurant set in a fishpond that serves local food at very reasonable prices. for a group of ten people, we ate  fern salad, steamed mixed veggies, pork belly, grilled catfish, marlin in tamarind broth, steamed rice and leche flan for dessert. All of that food cost us barely three thousand pesos.

Finally, we went to Lucban, which is well known for the Pahiyas festival on the 15th of May. It's nice that we could see the church sans the mayhem of their yearly festival. We visited the St. Louis, Bishop of Toulouse church:

St Louis Bishop of Toulouse, Lucban, Quezon

Located in front of the town's shady plaza, this church was first built in 1593 but was ruined in 1629. The second church, built between 1630 and 1640 was seriously damaged by fire in 1733 and reconstructed in 1738. Its convent was built in 1743. The church was destroyed partially i 1945 during WWII and finally reconstructed by tjhe Philippine Historical Commission in 1966. It is surrounded by garden and grottos and fenced in by old stone walls called quince- quince. The venerated image of San Isidro Labradoris enshrined here. Lucban is located 160.36km fromManila and 23.7km north of Lucena City*

It was an ordeal getting home after five in the afternoon from Lucban, Some members managed to get bags of local Lucban longganiza and some native baskets made of pandan or pineapple leaves. All the AHP family who were in attendance of the heritage tour actually had a great time inspite of the traffic. I actually got home half past ten in the evening. This was perhaps, the longest trip AHP has ever taken as of now...

.* A Tourist Guide to Notable Philippine Churches; Benjamin Locsin Layug, New Day Publishers, 2007