The San Francisco de Malabon or St. Francis of Assissi Church in Gen. Trias was built by the Jesuits in 1624. An awe-inspiring feature is a gigantic painting on its dome depicting the Apostles receiving the Pentecostal fire. It was here where the Marcha Filipina was rehearsed before it was played at the declaration of independence. Cultural landmarks Among the most remarkable is the Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion or Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Maragondon. Built by the Jesuits in 1618 and one of the 26 oldest churches in the country, it has been declared a National Cultural Treasure by the National Museum. It served as headquarters of Aguinaldo’s forces in 1897. This is a small quaint church with a five-story belfry of layered red brick tiles and gray river stones. Its 380-year-old door is of thick heavy slabs of mulawin richly carved with motifs of flowers and foliage, cypress, galleon, fortress towers, a hand holding up a cluster of grapes. Inside, sunlight streamed in through windows of stained-glass rectangles, squares and triangles of primary and secondary colors. At the altar, 14 retablos and the niche of the Sacrament are ablaze in gold, red and lapis lazuli. On a side wall is an ornately carved pulpit in polychrome hardwood, while running the length of three of the seven dark-brown crossbeams above are Latin inscriptions in white. But as with most of our cultural landmarks, human greed and ineptitude also took their toll on this one. All but one of its original paintings depicting the 14 Stations of the Cross were stolen. They have since been replaced by high-relief images in polychrome wood, and the remaining painting stored for safekeeping. The walled city of Cavite used to have eight colonial churches but now only the belfry of the Recoletos church still stands. Culture and history are inextricably linked in the province. One may have gone but the other remains.
Original article (here)
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