Also known as Bacolor church or Sunken Church, the San Guillermo Church has been the go to place for the religious people in Bacolor, Pampanga. Why Sunken? It has been one of the few places in Pampanga that has been ravaged by lahar and it has gotten almost 3/4 of the church buried. It was disheartening for them to see this happen on their most precious landmark.
Tours on this place can be assisted with the Church historian. She'll tell you what happened and how the mega dike saved this structure bringing hope to thousands of citizens in this town.
You might feel you have seen this church before, because it's the same one where they filmed "May Bukas Pa" a popular ABSCBN series. The entrance before was a huge door but it got buried so they use the three display windows that was previously for patron saints. They fixed it and the whole level a couple of years ago.
The front entrance was closed at the time we got there so we went to the right side which was previously a school.
The right side of the structure now houses the church's archives. It has paintings, sculptures, photos of the original structure and a multitude of statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Seen also above is one of the entrances of the room which also sank during the 90's eruption of Mount Pinatubo.
The church as you can see only had a few feet left so they opened up the ceiling so they can still utilize the structure.
The altar almost reached the ceiling which means they probably raised this part.
The columns which was previously a few feet up can now be reached. Physically impossible before so you can just imagine how high this was.
They had a few more structures on both sides of the altar which displays more of their patron saints. It was off limits as they probably were protecting it from physical damage.
It was 3PM and their bells rang quite beautifully for the angeluz if I'm not mistaken. It reminded us to pray that exact hour, it was heard across town.
This was part of the church structure at the back. As you can see they were really lucky that they got to still use it after that calamity. They are truly blessed.
We also saw some black pigs in the church grounds which they probably allow to roam freely. Quite cute.
You really should visit this place and see how lucky you are if you live elsewhere. Even tough they experienced this I really feel they were blessed to have been able to get their structure saved during that time. Thanks to the kind people at this church who welcomed us and showed us around. It was a very humbling experience!
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