St. Peter the Apostle Parish Church Postcard

The first stone church was built in 1602. It was destroyed by fire in 1638 and rebuilt beside the site of the older one. This is the Loboc Church presently standing, a fine example of the Jesuit colonial architecture of the 18th century. The Augustinian Recollects were responsible for the free-standing bell tower, the arcade facade, the mortuary chapel, and the heavy stone buttresses.

Loboc Church Postcard

Loboc Church contains a lot of interesting treasures. Among these are the decorative stone carvings and friezes on the exterior walls; a relief of St. Ignatius in polychrome stucco intriguingly hidden behind the main altar, seven ancient retablos from both the Jesuit and Recollect periods; ceiling murals done in the 1920’s by the Cebuano artists Rey Farncia and Canuto Avila, one depicting the miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the town’s secondary patron, during the great flood of 1876; carved wooden cornices and decorative corbels shaped as gargoyles or mythical animals; and the unique three-story convent, perhaps the only one of its kind in the country.

SOURCE:
Loboc, Bohol Wikipedia Entry