Many interesting details can be found in Pototan cemetery. The stone cross marker for instance is still very much intact. That’s the cemetery caretaker or portero in front of the towering solid cross back in 1995. If Janiuay’s stone cross required 52 carabaos to haul it, I wonder how many this one took.
The cross figures strongly in the celebration of Pyesta Minatay or All Saints’ Day. This is where people light candles to remember their dead in far away places or those whose burial places no longer exist inside the cemetery.
Another interesting feature of Pototan is its entrance archway made of limestone. The date 1894–probably the inauguration date–is found above the iron gates. (I use the word probably because in some other colonial structures, the inscribed dates sometimes refer to the start of construction and not to its inauguration. Without enough archival evidence, I can only qualify the statement).
At first glance, the archway appears rather plain. But look closely and see the symbol of the Augustinian order–a flaming heart pierced by an arrow–cleverly inserted among the pill-shaped mouldings.
