Simbahang Bato
A ruined Roman Catholic church with a small chapel standing inside its massive walls, which is why people call it a church within a church. The local name, Simbahang Bato, means stone church. It is also known as Bancuro Church, after the barangay it stands in.
The Augustinians built it in the 1680s and 1690s from coralline stone bonded with lime mortar, first as a convent and later a parish. After Moro raiders destroyed the settlement in 1842, the thick walls served as a fort and a refuge as well as a church. The capital of Naujan moved away from Bancuro in 1858. In 2004 the University of the Philippines Archaeological Studies Program dug in the ruins to look for the old main settlement, and the municipal and provincial governments put the site on their tourist lists after that.
- Where
- Naujan
- Town
- Oriental Mindoro
Written by an editor · 22 Sep 2026 · source: Wikipedia, Simbahang Bato (Naujan)