The Santo Domingo de Guzman Church in Lal-lo, Cagayan, in 2003 (Photo by Betty Lalana and Lino Arboleda, Ortigas Foundation Library Collection)

Roman Catholic Parish Church (former Cathedral) of Santo Domingo de Guzman.

Lal-lo Church: Lal-lo, Cagayan. Built around 1600.

Juan de Salcedo came to the area of Lal-lo in the Cagayan Valley in 1572. It was the first important Spanish settlement there. It was on the banks of the big Cagayan River and close to both the port of Camalaniugan further downriver and the town of Aparri at the river’s mouth, which led to the West Philippine Sea. People say that the town got its name from the whirlpools in the river. Based on the tone of documents from the time, it seems likely that the Spaniards built Nueva Segovia in 1581, right next to a settlement of the Ibanag, who were the first people to live in Lal-lo (spelled Lal-loc in the past). In 1595, the northern half of the island of Luzon was made into a diocese. The cathedral and seat of the diocese were in Nueva Segovia. At the start of the 17th century, 200 Spaniards lived in this city, which was protected by the stone fort of San Francisco. Over time, though, the older name came to be used for both towns, and Nueva Segovia became the name of the diocese only. This seems to have happened in other Spanish towns in the archipelago as well (e.g., Ciudad Fernandina was supplanted by Vigan, and Nueva Caceres became indistinguishable from Naga).

Some sources say that there were three churches in Lal-lo. The secular clergy ran Nueva Segovia, which was part of the cathedral. Tocolana, which had a hospital, was the second. The third was Bagumbayan. The last two, which were run by Dominicans, may have been the first people to live in Lal-lo. An account from the 18th century, on the other hand, says that the seculars also ran one of these two parishes or both of them together (if the third parish hadn’t yet been split). The cathedral of Lal-lo, Nueva Segovia, is still there, but no one is sure what the other two churches were. Benito Legarda thinks that the chapel in the cemetery just south of the town may be Tacolana. Residents say that a pile of ruins by the river on the Tabacalera property a few blocks north of the cathedral belonged to the “first church of San Jose.” The diocese of Nueva Segovia was based in Lal-lo until 1758, when it was officially moved to Vigan on the other side of Luzon. The changes in the river made it harder and harder to get to Lal-lo. Even back in the 1600s, many bishops preferred to work in Vigan instead of Lal-lo. Today, half of the plaza in front of the old cathedral has been washed away, leaving only an old wooden cross standing in the middle where the plaza used to be.

The Lal-lo Cathedral is hard to date because it is now a parish church. Fray Rodrigo de Cardenas, who was bishop from 1653 to 1661, had a building built. The nave and the bell tower may be the only parts that still stand. The most interesting part of the building is the campanario, or bell tower, which has four sides and two stories. Its shape is similar to the ruins of the towers of Tuao and Nassiping, which are further south. The walls of the nave are thick, and there are triangular buttresses every few feet. The church is built in the style of a basilica, but two chapels stick out from the south wall and flank the side entrance. These are held up by buttresses that are even more squat and bigger than the ones in the nave. The chapel closest to the bell tower still has a tile roof, and its pointed octagonal dome made of stone and floor tiles is still there. There is a double row of niches that stick out from the south side of the apse. These niches are part of the wall that surrounds the churchyard. In the 19th century, the front was redone in a style called neo-Florentine Renaissance. This style is similar to that of Alcala, which is farther south. The cornices and entablatures, as well as the paired columns made of wood or stone, have been gone for a long time. Almost all of the ruins of the church, bell tower, and convento are made of brick. The front looks old, but it’s hard to tell how old the rest of the building is. Several bricks from the 1800s say “Vigan,” which is probably the name of the place where the brick mold was made. Most of the wall’s plaster has worn away. A thin wall made of what look like cut adobe stones connects the bell tower to the rest of the church. Even though the church has a long and interesting history, the inside is very empty. Only a few of the wooden retablos’ flanges remain. Old photos show how ornate and baroque they were. The wrought-iron pulpit is from the late 1800s, but the secret way to get to it through a back door is from an earlier time. This kind of “surprise entrance” pulpit is also found in Tanay, Rizal; Nagcarlan and Pakil, Laguna; Sariaya, Quezon; and Baybay, Leyte. Bells in the campanario with the dates 1694, 1790, and 1793 show that Lal-lo is also very old.

Even though it is a cathedral, the church seems to have never been fixed up. People have complained about cracked walls, rotting trusses, and a nave without a roof. Around 1721, the church was in such bad shape that a thatched chapel had to be built inside. Because of this, more clerics pushed for the diocesan seat to be moved to Vigan. This sad situation hasn’t gotten any better, as shown by the fact that there are historical markers for “Lal-loc Nueva Segovia” and “Lal-loc Tocolana” on the facade, which faces a cross on the edge of an eroding embankment.