San Carlos City Church

This town with the primitive name of Binalatongan was the first in Pangasinan to be founded by the Dominican missionaries. Its creation as a vicariate dates back to 1588 when it was placed under the patronage of St. Dominic. The first pastor of the town was Father Bernardo Navarro de Santa Catalina.

Binalatongan which means “a place of mangos” have had three different town sites with the same name. Originally it was situated on the western side of the Agno River near the mountains of Zambales. Later it was moved to the eastern side of the Agno which site still conserves the name of “Baloydaan”. It was here that the church and the Dominican House were burned on August 4, 1718. It appears that the town was again transferred around the year 1721 to the site it now occupies where the church and the Domincan House were pillaged and burned in 1763.

In 1770, the construction of a massive brick church began. When completed by Father Cristobal Ausina in 1773, it was the biggest church in the islands. Destroyed by the earthquake of 1796, 1789, and 1799, it was rebuilt in 1803. It measured then 89 yards long and 22 a yards wide.

Binalatongan was the center of the bloody rebellion in 1763 under the leadership of Juan dela Cruz “Palaris”, occasioned by the English invasion of the preceding year. Because of this, the King of Spain, Charles III ordered the town to be demolished and transferred to a new town which should not exceed 500 tributor. The condition was never met, however, because the town’s tributors never went down below five thousand, even after Mangatarem and Urbiztondo were separated from San Carlos as independent towns.

Comments

amputi layag said…
binaltongan does not mean "place of mangoes" rather it was called as such because of the many "monggo" or "balantong" that abound our place when the spaniards came.
October 23, 2013 at 9:11 AM
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