The town of
Bantay in
Ilocos Sur is best known for its 1590 church and bell tower, which was also the site of a battle fought by the revolutionary
Diego Silang and his men against the troops of the Spanish colonial government in 1763.
Named
St. Augustine Church, after the
Augustinian friars who established the parish, the church is also the Shrine of
Our Lady of Charity.
The bell tower stands on top of a hill some distance away from the church.
Tourists are allowed up the tower (using some scarily rickety stairs), where the guide will invariably point out that the historic bell was used in the filming of the popular local action fantasy movie
Ang Panday (The Blacksmith). Unfortunately, I can no longer remember if he was referring to the
1980 film starring the late
Fernando Poe Jr. or the
2009 and
2011 films starring
Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr.
According to an
Ilokano friend, the word
bantay means "hill" in their language. The word also exists in
Tagalog, where it means "guard" or "to guard," which is also appropriate because the tower has commanding views of the town, the not-so-distant West Philippine Sea (
South China Sea), and the distant
Cordillera mountain range.
3 comments:
Nice vies from that bell tower.
I don't think I've ever seen a bell tower built away from a church...very interesting. I found the historical info most interesting, too.
Did you hear about the priest who was in his office one day when a bum walked in to beg for money? The priest said no to the money but told him he could ring the bell in the bell tower but had to use his head 'cause there was no rope. If he did that for a day the priest would give him some money.
So the guy left for the bell tower. A little while later the priest heard a commotion outside and went to investigate. A crowd had gathered around a man lying on the ground. They told the priest he had fallen out of the bell tower and was dead.
Then they asked the priest if he knew the man.
The priest looked at the prone figure intently and said, finally, and slowly:
"No, I don't think so. But his face rings a bell!"
Looks like an awesome place to visit. I love places with history.
An Arkies Musings
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