Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction -- Comparisons with Spain and Latin America -- Materials -- Types of structures -- Style: General considerations -- Style: Evolution -- Regional styles -- Concluding remarks.

Dr. Legarda traces the development of architectural styles in Europe over the centuries from Gothic to Baroque and Romanesque and how they moved from Italy and France into Spain where they picked up Moorish influences and from there to the Spanish colonies in the Americas and lastly to the Philippines across the Pacific. Churches were built in the Philippines both for local secular parishes and for the Friar orders which played a major role in governing the country during the Spanish colonial period. Although this essay was written more than fifty years ago the Ortigas Foundation believes it is still an invaluable research tool for anyone seriously interested in the history of Spanish colonial churches in the Philippines.