The San Diego Pro-cathedral, formerly known as the San Diego Parish Church or the Saint Didacus Parish Church, is a pro-cathedral in Silay City, Negros Occidental in the Philippines and is the episcopal seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bacolod.
I went here at 7:50 a.m. and 3:47 p.m. on August 29, 2013 with my friends, Chenie and Lindsay, as part of our Silay City Heritage Walk. This was during my first time in Negros Occidental, the 24th province on my list.
San Diego Pro-Cathedral
History
San Diego Pro-cathedral was originally built out of bamboo, cogon grass, and nipa palm in 1776. In 1841, with a plan to replace the church with a more permanent structure made of stone and wood, then-parish priest Fr. Eusebio Locsin with the substantial donation by Don Jose R. Ledesma, a resident of Silay and a wealthy sugar baron, commissioned an Italian architect, Lucio Bernasconi to design the new church. Construction began in 1925 and completed in 1927 with the help of popular contribution and fund-raising by schoolchildren.
Bernasconi made the church’s layout in the shape of a Latin cross, with a cupola rising forty meters above the nave, taking the churches in Italy as the model.
Inside San Diego Pro-Cathedral
Patron saint
The San Diego Pro-cathedral is named in honor of Didacus of Alcalá, a Spanish lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor more known in the Philippines as San Diego de Alcalá.
The Altar of San Diego Pro-Cathedral
San Diego Pro-cathedral is the only pro-cathedral outside Manila and is unique in Negros Occidental for being the only church in the province featuring a cupola or dome.
The Exterior of San Diego Pro-Cathedral
San Diego Pro-cathedral
Silay City, Negros Occidental, Philippines
Coordinates: 10.800153°N 122.975839°E