Atimonan Church Part 2 - Quezon

One blog article is surely not enough to cover the beauty and wonder of Atimonan Church. During the first article I talked about the history of Atimonan, Quezon's oldest religious structure. 

Atimonan Church facade

In this second installment of my blog about Atimonan Church, we'll focus on the numerous statues found inside and outside the old church. Aside from that, we'll also climb it's bell tower and take a 360 degree look at the town of Atimonan. 

Can you help me decipher that Latin inscription?

The statues that you'd probably see first are the statues of angels on the church facade standing watch over the plaza and Lamon Bay.  The most popular among those statues in the church facade is the one of St. Michael the Archangel stepping on the face of the defeated Lucifer.

One of the angels at the church facade.

My cousin Isay posing with his friend St. Michael

Aside from St. Michael (called San Miguel in the Philippines), six other angels can be found standing guard on the right side of the church. Then on the further rightmost side of those angels, you can find the statues of some Roman soldiers and Jesus (probably depicting the time of Jesus' arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane)

The seven archangels in the bible

Jesus and one of the Roman soldiers

That's right cousin it's payback time!  

Now let's go inside the church and see what statues we could find. (Surprise! this church has more statues than the line up of players of Miami Heat.)

Let's not miss out the statue of the Crucified Christ at the altar

Nearest the altar are the statues of the Holy family. Joseph and the young Jesus is found on the left side and Mary and the young Jesus on the right side.

Joseph and young Jesus + Church interior + Mary and young Jesus

Let's check out the other statues.

The right wall of the church is dominated by female saints.

Ladies first!

The left wall is filled up by male saints.

The all male cast.

After viewing the statues, we headed up to the most exciting part of the church! The comfort room! Just kidding we went up the bell tower. Check out the pictures that we took there!

A bird's eye view of the church interior from the loft before entering the passageway to the bell tower.

Posing under the Atimonan's 1857 bell

Of course I had to pose too!

Checking out the view of Atimonan from the top of the bell tower

Posing for the camera!

Checking out Iskong Bantay watch tower.

Calling and making fun of  passers by. Just kidding that's my aunt.

Overall, my visit to Atimonan Church proved to be a very memorable and educational adventure. Plus it also served as a great bonding time for me and the family. If you get a chance to visit the municipality of Atimonan, take time to visit its old church and feel its historic atmosphere. 

Getting to Atimonan Church:

From Manila there are several bus lines that ply the route going to Lucena City. From there transfer to one of the mini buses heading to Gumaca. Tell the conductor to drop you off before the diversion road of Atimonan. From there you could rent motorcycles to bring you to the old church.