The 184-year-old Spanish-era twin bells at the Parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Sibalom, Antique, long hidden from public view, will soon become tourist attractions.<\/p>\n
After the blessing on Feb. 5, the bells are now on display in front of the parish in Barangay Ega\u00f1a.<\/p>\n
Jonathan de Gracia, a member of the Sibalom Municipal Council on Tourism and History, said in an interview on Monday that there are people interested in cultural heritage who would like to study the bells.<\/p>\n
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts, provincial government, Department of Education, University of the Philippines-Visayas, and the Office of Senator Loren Legarda listed the bells as among the important cultural properties of Antique because of their age and historical significance during the 2021-2022 cultural mapping inventory.<\/p>\n
As important cultural properties, the bells can\u2019t be moved outside of Antique and cannot be sold.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bells were made on Feb. 5, 1842, based on the inscription,\u201d De Gracia said, adding that they were commissioned by Spanish priest Fr. Julian Nu\u00f1ez, assigned in Sibalom from 1839 to 1851.<\/p>\n
Sibalom Gobernadorcillo (Little Governor during the Spanish era) Agustin Baladjay, who served from 1839 to 1841, and his successor Tomasito Ve\u00f1egas, oversaw the making of the bells which are made of copper.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere used to be a copper mine in Barangay Carawisan and Bongbongan in Sibalom in the 1840s that could be the reason why the bells were made of copper,\u201d De Gracia said.<\/p>\n
The bigger bell is estimated to be 91.44 centimeters tall, while the other one is slightly smaller.<\/p>\n
Historical accounts said that in 1843, after the bells were completed, Baladjay led a revolt against the Spanish colonizers because they could no longer bear the forced labor and other abuses committed against local folks. (PNA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Making the bells public highlights how religious artifacts can enrich visitor experiences without losing cultural significance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":262356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-travel"],"zyndk8_nxtgen_metadata":{"nxtgen_comments":[{"7588":"CuLtUrAl hErItAgE yAmAn\r","7589":"good move na ilabas sa public \ud83d\udd14\r"}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=262355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/262356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=262355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=262355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uptownmanila.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=262355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}