Charming Chapels of Negros : Chapel of the Cartwheels / Hacienda Santa Rosalia Chapel

It would seem, this is the place where wooden cartwheels decommissioned from a previous era of sugarcane farming, find rest. Built almost entirely out of repurposed farm implements, the Chapel of the Cartwheels is an eloquent tribute to people who till the earth and harvest its fruits. It stands in Hacienda Santa Rosalia in Manapla, acting as a focal point for community life while reminding its congregation to always reach for God with its upward-spiraling conical roof.


Discarded wooden bullcart wheels are the dominant building materials of the Chapel of the Cartwheels in Manapla. Cartwheels form the walls of the chapel as well as its rose windows, which are decorated with broken softdrink and beer bottles. The circular motif represents an eternal life through Christ, with no beginning or end.



Cartwheels are everywhere in the Chapel of the Cartwheels in Manapla. Christ is crucified on a cartwheel instead of a cross. A cartwheel serves as the oculus at the pinnacle of the conical roof. Cartwheels serve as walls for the circular chapel, as well as the three rose windows behind the altar. Even the chapel’s circular footprint is based on the shape of a cartwheel.



Monsignor Guillermo Gaston, or GG to his family, envisioned the Chapel of the Cartwheels in Manapla shortly after his ordination as a priest, as a “visible expression of the simple but deep faith of a Christian farmer.”

Text By: Vicente Garcia Groyon
Photos By: John Kimwell Laluma
Video By: Grilled Cheese Studios