Baroque Churches of the Philippines

Earthquakes taught the Philippines to build Baroque its own way. The four churches at Manila, Santa Maria, Paoay and Miag-ao — the earliest a Spanish foundation of the late 16th century — reinterpret European Baroque through the hands of Chinese and Filipino craftsmen, with massive buttresses and fortress-like walls made for shaky ground. UNESCO inscribed the group in 1993; Paoay's stepped buttresses show the style at full volume.