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San Augustine Church – one of the oldest churches of
Ilocos Sur, it was built in 1590 with Fr. Montoya, as the first parish
priest. The Augustinian friars named it after St. Augustine, the Patron Saint.
The church was damaged during the World War II but was reconstructed in 1950.
The restored facade is of neo-gothic design mixed with pseudo-Romanesque
materials and elements. Its grandiose design afforded a reminiscent of the old
Spanish architecture using indigenous materials, which are of bricks and slime.
According to great ancestors, fishermen found the image of Our Lady of Charity
placed in a wooden box floating in Bantaoay river and when the news broke,
people from other towns and Provinces came to take the image but could not be
moved and only people from Bantay were able to carry the miraculous image.
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