Santa Maria Church, Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur

With the influx of migrants, Augustinian missionaries built the Santa Maria Church in Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur on the crest of a solitary hill from 1756 to 1810. Unlike its sister churches in Ilocos Sur, the Santa Maria Church exhibits lesser scale and proportion. Having its bell tower rather than its façade overlooking the town, the church is completely surrounded by stone walls and can only be reached by climbing its 83-step stairway of piedra china. The Santa Maria Church has a pair of rectangular priors that divides its façade into three pronounced planes. Its symmetry is further reinforced by huge circular buttresses on both sides with sharp moldings at their bases and cornices, creating an ambiance of monumentality. Like the Paoay Church, its thick walls are also supported by massive buttresses. Gracing the church façade, comb-shaped pediments provide a graceful finish to the upward movements of its buttresses and its arch-shaped entrance.