Parish Church of San Mathias in Tumanuini, Isabela, was built by Fr. Domingo Forto, a Dominican Priest, from 1783 to 1788. With a keen eye to details and an affection to decoration, Fr. Forto created a work of art in his church. To achieve the ornamentation he wanted, he went as far as importing artisans from Pampanga to carve the wood moldings for the clay insets. Likewise, he devised an ingenious method that assured him that the laborers followed exactly his design, especially when he went away on missionary travels. A closer look at the spiral relief of the facade shows carved out numbers that indicate the proper sequence of the bricks. Some of the bricks were even stamped with a date; one brick displays the year “1784″ Paired pseudo-Corinthian columns . . .
