One
of the places to visit when you went to Laguna is the Nagcarlan Underground
Cemetery. This quiet place is located along the busy road of Nagcarlan. The
cemetery is located under a church that was built in 1845. It was built and designed
for burial masses by a Franciscan priest named Fr. Vicente Velloc.
In
1978 the cemetery was declared by the National Historical Institute as a
national historical landmark. Aside from being a burial site for elite Catholic
families, the cemetery became a secret meeting place for the revolutionary
Filipinos of the KKK during the 1896. During the World War II, the burial site
also became a safe house for our soldiers.
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entrance to the church and cemetery
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| the Nagcarlan Curch surrounded by tombs and a lush garden |
You
will feel serenity as you reached the place. The architectural design of the
church invites people to come and enter the place. Upon entering the church,
you will be asked to sign up your name and residence in a logbook by the
National Historical Institute. It is important that you write your name; this
helps the National Historical Institute to track the number of tourist who came
to the place. There is a feeling of coldness as you walked downstairs the
cemetery. I believed that it is because of the rock walls that formed the
crypt. If you looked at the encryption on the tombs you will see that the
oldest date’s goes way back to 1886.
Today, there are no regular mass held at the
church. Masses are only held during the Feast of the Christ the King and Holy
Week. During Lenten Season a Senakulo is being held at the place.
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| the altar inside the church |
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| going down the crypt |
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| the tombs inside the underground crypt |
The
Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery is open during Tuesdays to Sundays at 8:00 a.m.
to 4:00 p.m. If you are commuting, you can reach the Nagcarlan Underground
Cemetery by riding a jeep bound to Liliw. The cemetery is hard to missed because
of its architecture that stands out along the Nagcarlan road.
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| a closer look at the tombs |
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