Previously, I wrote about the century-old bell found along Staunton Road. This time, I'm sharing our walk exploring the Sagada Stone Church or most commonly known as Church of St. Mary the Virgin. It was the fourth stop on our New Year's Day adventure.
Here's a brief history of the place obtained from Wikipedia and I quote:
It was built in 1904 by American missionaries under the auspices of the Episcopal Church in the United States (Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America) led by Rev. John Staunton when the Philippines was opened to American Protestant missions after the country was ceded to the United States from Spain in 1898.
That explains the street along the church being named Staunton Rd.
Anyway, we spent a good half an hour (or maybe more) relaxing on this place after coming back from our hike to the Hanging Coffins. Coming down from the cemetery, this was our entry point to the church.
It was past 4 in the afternoon and the sun was playing hide and seek. I was down the road already and I saw more people arriving. It turned out we were not the only people spending New Year away from home.
Glancing at my right side, I saw these colorful trees. It felt like autumn! And there's even a beautiful house peeking through somewhere behind those trees!
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Moving to another spot and aha! There it is! And there's smoke somewhere down there.
Then I crossed over to the other side of the road, I saw some cattle down the grassland enjoying their afternoon snacks.
Turning forward and looking ahead, I saw the beautiful stone church and a couple taking selfies. You can tell the place is quite huge just by looking at those two.
And because I didn't want to bother them, I walked towards my left. Besides, I saw something from the distance and I'm curious!
Giant wheels! And a glimpse of some houses behind the trees too.
But wait! I glanced towards my right and noticed that the couple had already left so time to go! It was looking so dark inside though, was it really?
Okay, let's take a closer look. By this time, the husband joined me so we went in and this was what we saw.
It was actually bright and it was so quiet in there! There was a lady engrossed on her mobile phone screen that she didn't even budge an inch when we went in, lol! Apart from the pews and the altar, the church looked simple and rather bare. The stained glasses in the distance looked perfect from where we stood.
We stepped out after saying our little thanks then we continued to explore the outside.
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Off to the left and there was the path leading to the Parish Center and along it is the lawn.
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There were some scaffoldings at the bell tower so there maybe some repair works being done. You may have observed that aside from the painted roofing, they kept the stone walls natural.
And the lawn is quite spacious. There's a sitting area farther ahead but we didn't go because there were some people who seem to be having their own wee event or something.
We took a little more time out there, taking photographs and also checking out the centennial wheels which I will be writing about next time because they have quite an interesting history and I feel that they need a standalone post.
After sometime, we retraced our way and headed back to the car. But like other times, I felt my photos were not enough so I kept capturing. The husband was fast and had gone so far ahead of me.
Meanwhile, I caught a glimpse once again of the cattle down the grassland and this time, there was some sunlight at the farthest end.
Looking back for the nth time, I saw a man in uniform, saying a prayer in front of the church.
Then 40 seconds later... I saw two more people and yep, I didn't pass the chance to photograph them and the church of course! These were sort of my final shots then headed straight to where we parked.
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Arriving at the car, I took this photo of this road leading to St. Mary's School and the other down to the grassland where the animals are.
We left the church grounds supposedly to visit two echo mountains but they were closed to the public so we ended up coming back to park and then off to grab a bite at Salt 'N Pepper.
These are the places we have been to on this trip, others I will still have to write about.
- Blue Soil Hills
- Sumaguing Cave
- The Cemetery
- St. Mary the Virgin/ Stone Church (This)
- Hanging Coffins
Happy weekend and keep forging ahead!
Photos are my own. 29012023/09:15ph