After eight months, Escuela Taller is expected to finish its conservation work on the La Loma Cemetery Chapel’s facade by the end of March.

According to Jeffrey Cobilla, architect and head of Escuela Taller’s conservation team, thecompletion of the chapel’s facade reaffirms Escuela Taller’s work in advancing preventiveconservation in the country as well as its mission to give employment to heritage workers,particularly the graduates of Escuela Taller who were former out of school youth.

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Ar. Cobilla said, “ We are pleased that we are able to deliver our several missions at once;one is that Escuela Taller is being able to contribute to the preservation and conservation ofour nation’s cultural assets and then realize our equal aims to keep a dying craft alive whilegiving employment to our heritage conservation workers and make our projects effectiveplatforms on our advocacy on proper and mindful care of our built heritage.”

Together with the Diocese of Kalookan, Escuela Taller launched the project in June 2021and officially started in July last year. The start of the project coincided with thecommemoration of the 500th year of the arrival of the Christian faith in Philippine soil.

La Loma Chapel Restoration By Escuela TallerCourtesy of Escuela Taller

La Loma Chapel Restoration By Escuela TallerCourtesy of Escuela Taller

La Loma Chapel Restoration By Escuela TallerCourtesy of Escuela Taller

La Loma Chapel Restoration By Escuela TallerCourtesy of Escuela Taller

La Loma Chapel Restoration By Escuela TallerCourtesy of Escuela Taller

La Loma Chapel Restoration By Escuela TallerCourtesy of Escuela Taller

La Loma Chapel Restoration By Escuela TallerCourtesy of Escuela Taller

La Loma Chapel Restoration By Escuela TallerCourtesy of Escuela Taller

La Loma Chapel Restoration By Escuela TallerCourtesy of Escuela Taller

La Loma Chapel Restoration By Escuela TallerCourtesy of Escuela Taller

La Loma Chapel Restoration By Escuela TallerCourtesy of Escuela Taller

La Loma Chapel Restoration By Escuela TallerCourtesy of Escuela Taller

La Loma Chapel Restoration By Escuela TallerCourtesy of Escuela Taller

Among the accomplishments made by Escuela Taller’s conservation team include theremoval of destructive vegetation that has crept to the masonry stones for years, theremoval of cement plaster that once covered the building, the rehabilitation and replacementof deteriorated and damaged masonry units along with reinstatement of lost details of thefacade. Escuela Taller also removed the hazards in the cupola including the preparation ofwooden posts and the repair of the wooden dowel atop the right pilaster.

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The project employed a total of 16 graduates of Escuela Taller who had already beenexperienced and exposed to conservation projects similar to this one. These are trainedmasons and heritage conservation workers of Escuela Taller who have also been involvedwith ET’s conservation projects including that of Malate Church, Paco Park ossuary, amongothers. It is a display of Escuela Taller's sustained experience in the craft of traditionalmasonry and the use of traditional materials such as adobe, the primary constructionmaterial or fabric.

Fr. Paul Woo, Director of the Diocesan Commission on Cultural Heritage of the Diocese of Kalookan said “ with these efforts to preserve and conserve, more and more people nowbecome appreciative of these signs of faith and history. Though inanimate, these tangiblepieces of history are not just structures that show “antique” features nor are those simplystone-made chapels.”

Fr. Woo also said, “at present, the Diocese is on its way to publish a coffee tablebook that traces the beginnings of the Catholic Faith in the Diocese. Efforts arealso now directed to look for more sponsors, benefactors, and other assistanceneeded to make way for the conservation of the left and right sides of the church.'

During the restoration, the Diocese together with Escuela Taller have also begunworking on a Conservation Management Plan (CMP) and plans to implement it littleby little. The plan can enable the Diocese to find ways and means for funding andother resources needed to realize what is in the plan.

The cemetery also known as Cementerio General de la Loma was built as aresponse to the environmental and health concerns during the Spanish period.First there was the 1863 Manila earthquake and the overflow of other state-run suchas Paco and Sampaloc cemeteries and the need for more organized burials whichalso responds to the growing population of that time. After years of delay, it wascompleted in 1884 amid the cholera outbreak of 1882.

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The chapel was used as a fort by Filipino fighters during the Philippine-AmericanWar (Philippine Insurrection as it's called here in the US) and was later partlyshelled by a bomb aptly named 'Dewey.'

Escuela Taller and the Diocese of Kalookan will go on working together to keep theconservation of the rest of the chapel, which aims to go ahead with the rehabilitationof the rest of the walls, both the interior and exterior walls, immediately.