Janiuay Cemetery

Along the highway connecting Janiuay to the neighboring town of Mina is a cemetery built on a slope. Described at the time it was finished as “the most artistic in the whole country” the builder of this cemetery was Fr. Fernando de Llorente who commenced work in 1874 and completed the whole project after nine years. The archbishop of Manila, Pedro Payo, blessed the cemetery.

Three stairways lead to the three gates of the cemetery, built on a high ground and shored up by a retaining wall. The wall has niches in which 16 six-foot stone santos were enshrined. The cemetery perimeter is surrounded by a brick and wrought iron fence and near this gate stood a Byzantine stone cross. The cross and some statues are missing. On the same axis as the main gate is an octagonal mortuary chapel, covered by a pointed dome roof. The roof has been replaced by nondescript pyramidal roof. Despite the obvious degradation of the chapel, the Gothic features that remain are still stunning–the windows pierced by delicate stone tracery, the spires rising at the eight points of the octagonal building. (Panublion)