San Vicente Ferrer Chapel

San Vicente Ferrer Chapel

Description

The Pio chapel in Porac, built in 1862, the first circular chapel of its kind in the Philippines, formerly a private chapel built and owned by Don Felino Gil, founder of the Escuela de Artes y Oficios (now Don Honorio Ventura Technological State University) and ancestor of the Gil family of showbusiness , but today used as a place of worship by the villagers of brgy. Pio, who maintain preserve and treasure it for its unique architecture, the heirloom santo images on the altar, the hand-painted Machuca tiles on the floor, and the remains of Don Felino Gil and relatives interred inside. The only comparable chapels elsewhere would be the Paco Park chapel (which is actually oval-shaped) and of course the UP chapel in Diliman, which was built about a hundred years after the Pio chapel.

Location
Pio, Porac, Pampanga