Miagao Church
The Baroque-Romanesque style of the iconic St. Thomas of Villanova Parish popularly known as Miagao Church in Barangay Tacas is this town’s representative attraction. It was constructed in 1786 and completed in 1797. It was built as a place of worship and as a watchtower to protect the natives from Muslim pirates that regularly pillaged the town. The huge stone blocks were quarried in Sitio Tubug, San Joaquin and in the mountains of Igbaras.
The church sinks six meters deep in the ground with walls 2.5 meters thick including the outside buttresses. It boasts of its native façade with a unique explosion of botanical motif of coconut, banana, papaya tree, and a stylized guava fruit. Its centerpiece is San Cristobal in rolled pants carrying the child Jesus. It was declared as a National Shrine in 1973 and was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1993—the only one in the Visayas and Mindanao.
