The church that you see in the book is the San Guillermo Parish Church, in the town of Bacolor, Pampanga. "Named after the town's Patron Saint, San Guillermo. The Church was originally constructed by the Augustinian Friars in 1676 - also the town's founding - with Fr. Diego De Ochoa, OSA, as the town's first parish priest having been installed as such two years after. In 1880, the Church was destroyed by an earthquake only to be rebuilt by Fr. Eugenio Alvarez in 1886. On September 3, 1995, lahar flow from the slopes of Mt. Pinatubo which erupted into world notice on June 15, 1991, buried the church at half it's 12-m height prompting of it's more than 50,000 town residents to evacuate to safer grounds in resettlements areas." (local documentation) You can only understand this story if you know what are 'lahars': they are large deposits of dry ashes around the volcano. On rainy saison, when they are soaked with rain they can relocate as dangerous massive landslides. The surounding slopes of the Pinatubo Volcano are still loaded with lahars, and this is what happened to Bacolor in 1995.
Nowodays, the church is still in use, although only half it's original height, because they did not bother excavate it. They now use the window of the first floor as the door. After all: who needs 12 meters of empty space above one's head, even for prays? 6-m ought to be good enough.
Here is a recent photo (Easter 2006, vew from the ground) and a drawing of the original.
Since the church is in low-res, and under a cloud, it is difficult to match it to the book.
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p26 (village englou UPDATE 26 Arthus-Bertrand TOUR
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