Words and Images Patrick Kasingsing
The tours always start with the opening of the San Sebastian Basilica’s tall mint-green metal doors.
As Samantha Pacardo and Ysabel de Dios, community development manager and tour programs head respectively of the San Sebastian Basilica Conservation and Development Foundation, launch into their spiel on the basilica’s storied past, visitors are lured into the beautifully-preserved interiors, the church’s metallic surfaces bathed in the warmth of honeyed lighting from its glistening chandeliers and through natural light filtering in through the original German stained-glass windows of the basilica.
There is much to take in visually: the neo-gothic strain of the church grandiosely expressed through lofty spires, rhythmic vaulted ceilings, and tall, slender columns, all surrounded by more than 140 paintings and trompe l’oeil work, a triumph of local art. It is easy to be overcome with the urge to voraciously capture all the splendor and detail with your camera, but pictures tell only half the story.
The beauty of the San Sebastian Basilica tours is that not only does it allow free rein for visitors to document the church’s intriguing architecture but also engages them with a fascinating primer choc-full of intriguing trivia and information about the basilica. Aside from adding story and color to the details, this all the more points to the importance of preserving the 129-year-old landmark. The new photo walk tours go as far as allowing visitors to bask in the beauty and glory of the church interiors with doors closed granting an hour of architectural bliss without the crowds, allowing one to appreciate and document the architectural details without the pressure and distraction. This is definitely a rare architectural encounter one won’t get from most of our local churches and heritage landmarks.
“The tours engage its audience beyond mere spectatorship. Everyone is invited to be active ‘shareholders’ in keeping the church alive.”
Be it random quizzes about the church from tour coordinators, all-access trips to the church’s belfries for an uninterrupted view of Manila, or the addition of scaffolding platforms for use of photographers and architecture enthusiasts to obtain detail shots, the tours engage its audience beyond mere spectatorship.
Everyone is invited to be active ‘shareholders’ in continuing to keep the church alive. 129 years of prolonged exposure to saline tropical air and pollution and an alarming number of leaks and haphazard repair attempts have generated great deterioration that threatens the basilica’s survival. Thus, the existence of the conservation efforts and the addition of tours to help finance the 10-year conservation process.
We often treat objects from the past with a protectionist stance, owing to age and respect, which isn’t a bad thing at all. However, closing off access to it and limiting exposure and connection to society can lead to its being divorced from the country’s continuing story. Clearly, the San Sebastian Basilica is not treated as a cloistered relic but as a piece of the past that continues to serve an integral role in its community. The foundation’s engaging heritage tours and campaigns for the basilica’s conservation efforts offer an intriguing, admirable, and effective approach in assuring the survival and continued relevance of heritage landmarks to today’s society. •
Join in the efforts to save the San Sebastian Basilica. Like the San Sebastian Basilica Facebook page @savessbasilica for updates on tour schedules, trivia, and information on the church’s restoration. Use #SaveSanSebastian on your SSB photos and posts. Make your voices heard and help in the efforts to protect and preserve San Sebastian Basilica from external threats by signing this petition bit.ly/SaveSanSebastian
Originally published in Kanto No. 4, 2017. Edits were made to update the article.
