Monday, June 15, 2015

Bacolod City: The Heritage Walkabout: The Cartwheel Chapel: Part II

Bacolod City- The Heritage Walkabout: The Cartwheel Chapel: Part 2 

The Cartwheel Chapel 
The next stop of the tour is the Cartwheel Chapel of the Gastons. Built by Msgr. Guillermo Gaston. It is found in the interior part of their hacienda in Manapla, Negros Occidental.


A fishnet formed with an irregular shingles design making up the roof of this chapel. Walls surrounding it are made of cartwheels (53 cartwheels in  total). Symbolisms are explicitly used of this unique chapel emblazoning every corner of this most indigenous chapel.






 This chapel was purposely made for the sugarcane farmers in the hacienda of the Gastons. You might be wondering why they used cartwheels as their wall designs. It is indeed a symbol of the cart used to carry the sugar cane harvests. The crucified Jesus looks like a local farmer in the place and also Mary, the mother of Jesus wearing the national costume, The kimono at saya. In Lieu of the usual bell, they used a shell to gather the people around to start the mass. long benches with no back rest reminded them to sacrifice a little as their mass are being held.