The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, commonly known as Santo Domingo de Guzman Parish Church and Basco Cathedral, is a
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
cathedral
A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...
church located in
Basco, Northern
Batan Island
Batan Island ( ) is the main island of Batanes, an archipelagic province in the Philippines. It is the second largest of the Batanes Islands, the northernmost group of islands in the Philippines.
Geography
Batan is a dumbbell-shaped volcanic is ...
,
Batanes
Batanes, officially the Province of Batanes (; Ilocano: ''Probinsia ti Batanes''; , ), is an archipelagic province in the Philippines, administratively part of the Cagayan Valley region. It is the northernmost province in the Philippines, an ...
,
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
.
Because Batanes was named in religious records at the time of its establishment, the first church was dedicated to Our Lady of the
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Mariology, Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Debated by medieval theologians, it was not def ...
, Patroness of
Batanes Prelature.
[Casas, Brigido, Fr.. Prelature of Batanes. Unpublished manuscript.] It is speculated that the image of the Immaculate Conception was brought to Batanes during the 1783 expedition.
As a parish church, it bears the name Santo Domingo Church, in honor of the patron saint of the capital of Batanes, which is Basco, while it was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception as a cathedral.
History
With the establishment of Basco town on June 26, 1783, came the evangelical mission headed by
Dominican Fathers Bartholome Artiguez and Baltazar Calderon.
The first church was built in Basco town and was made of cogon and wood.
Around 1795, due to frequent fires and typhoons that destroyed buildings, stone churches were started to be built, made possible by imported masons, stone cutters, and carpenters from
Cagayan
Cagayan ( ), officially the Province of Cagayan (; ; ; isnag language, Isnag: ''Provinsia nga Cagayan''; ivatan language, Ivatan: ''Provinsiya nu Cagayan''; ; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Cag ...
.
People began to use lime not as just condiment for betel nut chew, but for constructing walls in combination with sand and stone. During this time, construction of the stone church of Basco took place,
with Fr. Nicolas Castaño designing the façade in 1812, and the convent in 1814.
The church has undergone renovations in response to disasters. It was burned and reconstructed at around 1860 to 1863, and was refurbished in 1950.
[Solemn Blessing of Sto. Domingo Cathedral, Basco, Batanes. Invitation Brochure. March 29, 2012.] The church was badly damaged in the earthquake of July 2000. Under Bishop Jose Salazar, O.P, the cathedral was rebuilt in its original form, which was completed in 2011.
References
External links
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{{Roman Catholic Territorial Prelature of Batanes
Roman Catholic churches in Batanes
Roman Catholic cathedrals in the Philippines
21st-century Roman Catholic church buildings
Roman Catholic churches completed in 2011
Churches in the Roman Catholic Territorial Prelature of Batanes
Jubilee churches in the Philippines