Sampaloc Church, Catholic church building in Sampaloc, Philippines
The Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Loreto is a Catholic church in the Sampaloc district of Manila, Philippines, standing on Figueras Street. The building has white exterior walls and a plain modern design, and it shares its grounds with a separate shrine dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua.
Franciscan missionaries built the first church on this site in 1613, and the same grounds soon became home to the first Poor Clares convent in the Philippines. Over the centuries the building was destroyed and rebuilt several times, including after a Chinese revolt in 1640, earthquakes, and the destruction of World War II.
The church is dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto, a title that refers to a famous Marian shrine in Italy, whose tradition was brought here by Franciscan missionaries. On feast days, people from the neighborhood gather at the shrines to pray and light candles.
The church holds daily masses and is open to visitors throughout the week. The grounds are easy to walk around, so you can visit both shrines without any particular route in mind.
The current building was completed in 1958, making it one of the few churches in the Philippines that was entirely rebuilt after World War II rather than restored. Despite the change in the structure, the devotional traditions practiced here have continued without interruption since the 17th century.
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