Our Lady of Atonement Cathedral which is popularly known as Baguio Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral which was constructed in 1920 and got finished 1936. It got its name from one of the titles given to Mary mother of Jesus. This church has a simple but elegant facade which is pink in color with rose style windows. It is located on top of Mount Mary Hill where visitors can access it using hundred steps stone stairways. Cars can easily enter the church’s premises using the access roads behind the Baguio City Post Office Building.
During World War II, this church was used as an evacuation center and was able to withstand carpet-bombings from the Japanese. After the earthquake in 1990, renovations had to be made and one of its tower’s foundations had to be filled with lots of cement to make the ground stable. They say that you can enjoy a nice view of the session road and the city’s landscape from one of its twin spires.
This is the first pink colored church that I’ve seen—the only other pink church that I know is the one in Villa Escudero, Quezon province. We never really got the chance to set foot on the church’s grounds and our one and only picture of it was taken inside the car because we were trying to catch up on our itinerary. We just quickly passed by it to have a better look of it because of our appreciation of its historical value. A closer look also gives us a better idea of how many people it has sheltered during the war and how the surrounding atmosphere feels like in this church as an evacuation shelter during that time.
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