San Sebastian Church or Basilica
Minore de San Sebastian is a Minor Basilica in the City of Manila. The very
first structure of this church is situated on a land donated by Don Bernardino
Castillo, a devotee of Saint Sebastian, in 1621. It was made up of wood, but
was burned in 1651. So it was then replaced by a structure made of bricks but
was destroyed again by fire and earthquakes.
the gorgeous facade of San Sebastian Church
A new plan was created and that was to
build a fire and earthquake resistant structure. In 1880s, Esteban Martinez
approached the Spanish architect, Genaro Palacios, to make a structure made of
entirely of steel.
I was in elementary when I first
saw the image of this church, it was one of our topics in HEKASI and then Geometry in
high school because of its angles.
The ceiling made up of pure steel
The steel used in building the
present structure were manufactured in Belgium. They were transported in eight
separate shipments from Belgium to the Philippines. The stained glasses were
imported from a German stained glass firm and applied by the local artisans.
