Cabanatuan Cathedral

After the parishes of Gapan in 1595 and Santor in 1636, the Augustinian priests founded the Cabanatuan church in 1700 as a visita of Gapan. By 1732, it only had 700 parishioners. The parish administration was transferred to secular priests in 1866, and in the same year, the first stone church and convent buildings were constructed under the leadership of José de la Fuente. The said buildings were destroyed by the earthquake of July 18, 1880 and were reconstructed under the helm of Mariano Rivas in 1891.^[4]

During the Philippine–American War, the cathedral's convent, shortly served as the seat of the capital of the Philippines^[5] where Antonio Luna and his aide-de-camp, Francisco Román, were killed by the members of the Kawit Battalion on June 5, 1899.^[1][6] In 1934, the church was razed by fire wherein only its lateral walls were spared. Nine years after the canonical foundation of the Diocese of Cabanatuan, the cathedral, and its adjacent former College of the Immaculate Conception building, was charred again on September 28, 1972. Three years later, on November 22, 1975, the church reconstruction was finished under Pacífico Araullo. It was dedicated by then Cabanatuan Bishop Vicente Reyes and then Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Bruno Torpigliani.^[4]

A new cathedral, locally called crypta, is being built in Sumacab Este, Cabanatuan, since 1999 and can accommodate 3,000 people.^[7]

• 
  Close-up of the cathedral's facade
• 
  The bishop's cathedra
• 
  Stained glass at the cathedral facade featuring Nicholas of Tolentino
• 
  Stained glass depicting the Holy Spirit on the ceiling above the altar
• 
  Cathedral sanctuary in 2015
• 
  Cathedral nave in 2023
• 
  Image of the Santo Niño of Cabanatuan
• 
  Cathedral sanctuary in 2012
• 
  Cathedral patio
• 
  Parish office