History class inside the cemetery

Inside the Nagcarlan Underground Cemetery’s small chapel, the Shrine guide by the name Cecile Sumague tells the story of its history. The cemetery was built during the Spanish times by a Franciscan, a certain Fr. Vicente Velloc. She said that about a hundred years before, Katipunan (a group of revolutionary Filipinos fighting against the colonial Spaniards) used the underground cemetery as a meeting place. Indeed when you go down there you could still vividly imagine the Katipuneros meeting there clandestinely, with candles lit, with oaths sworn and reports of the war given.

The cemetery was built in consideration of the people’s health and of the laws of the church, which means it should be built more or less two kilometers south of the poblacion or settlement. According to the brochure given by Ms. Sumague, the cemetery faces the road that leads to the poblacion, having an entrance of about 18 feet high and having two-winged iron gate grills. The cemetery chapel is directly opposite the gate, with a tower like structure, a niche atop, and an iron-cross. The cemetery walls holds about 240 niches, 120 on each side, surrounding the place, while a vast grassy plane occupies what is inside. Once there was a Spanish Inscription (now illegible) translated: 

Go forth, Mortal man, full of life 

Today, you visit happily this shelter,

But after you have gone out, 

Remember, you have a resting place here 

Prepared for you.

Ms. Sumague says only very important people in society were buried underground.