Ilocandia is blessed with massive Spanish-colonial era churches, to which two of them belong to the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage List. The mostly baroque churches were built under the supervision of the Agustinian Friars, mostly built of bricks and stone. While Laoag City has a big cathedral and the sinking belfry in its arsenal of heritage sites, one is tucked away from the eyes of the tourists, yet important for the locals—that small brick chapel in Laoag Public Cemetery.

Tucked away from the tourists eyes, but not for the locals.

Away from the tourists, the cemetery chapel of Laoag is petite baroque magnificence, which is made of red brick all around. The façade was covered with white lime or called locally as paletada (it is a known material that protects brick walls from being exposed to the elements), though the sides are still exposed.

A closer look of the chapel with its white washed (probably paletada) covered facade with a portion of the red brick walls exposed.

The chapel, we think, is still functional. By the time we went there, the doors were closed but we were able to peek inside from the window.

Finding the said cemetery chapel isn’t that easy since the city’s graveyard is somehow, like everything in Ilocos, massive. However, the cross and the curly façade somehow dominate the necropolis’ skyline.

Talk about Kim Chiu’s commercial. A wooden panel on the facade has a faded Latin phrase. “Et Exultabunt…” was clear though, which means “and rejoice.”

To be honest, we still have no idea when it was constructed but based on the wall’s construction and design, it is unmistakably during the Spanish colonial era—or someone may prove us wrong, or references for the history of the chapel is still unavailable online. Hopefully, someone can shed light on its past for us.

The back portion of the cemetery chapel with the old colonial niches on its side. The side and the back of the chapel’s walls are exposed.

For the hard-core heritage and culture aficionado travellers out there, the cemetery chapel of Laoag is a must visit.

How to get there:

Just take a tricycle and tell the driver, “Sementeryo ti Laoag. Ti dakkel ken public” (Laoag Cemetery, that big and public one.) It costs you more or less PhP11 (minimum fare for tricycles) to PhP20 (depending on where from Laoag City you came from) for the ride since it is in the outskirts of the downtown area.

Map to Laoag Chapel Cemetery here…