Iglesia Parroquial de San Juan Bautista), commonly
referred to as Jimenez Church, is a late-19th century, Baroque church located at Brgy. Poblacion, Jimenez, Misamis Occidental, Philippines. The parish church, The Cotta of Ozamiz under the patronage of Saint John the Baptist, is under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic The Cotta Fort was built by Father Jose Ducos in 1756 Archdiocese of Ozamiz. The church was declared a to serve as a Spanish outpost in the land. It was National Cultural Treasure of the Philippines in 2001. renovated and restored to its original design in 2002 under the leadership of Mayor Reynaldo O. Parojinog, The town of Jimenez was originally established by the Sr. and Vice Mayor Carlos Patricio C. Bernad. This is Augustinian Recollects in 1829 and with Our Lady of one of the many reasons why tourists go to Ozamiz, the Most Holy Rosary as its patron saint. Due to Philippines. It is the first to attract passengers from constant flooding, the old town and the church were incoming vessels to the Ozamiz City Port as it is abandoned and a new pueblo was erected. The present already visible miles away. The first thing one will church, built mostly from hewn coral stone, was notice is the lighthouse protruded above the walls of erected in the 19th century on a site previously settled the Cotta Fort. by the Subanons, a local tribe. The erection of the church structure is attributed to Father Roque Azcona Known as the “El Fuerte de la Concepcion y Del between the years 1862 to 1863. The church was Triunfo” in Spanish, the Cotta Fort is a stone fort built believed to have been completed in the late 1880s. along the shores of Panguil Bay which is now the Port of Ozamiz. The Cotta Fort has been used as a The church is predominantly Baroque in architecture constabulary house ever since it was built. It was with features strategically situated near the Panguil Bay which was reminiscent of the named as the “never ending source of Muslim pirates”. Renaissance style. The This enables the constabulary to avoid sudden church façade, contrary onslaught and attack the Moro pirates from the to other Roman barracks. The Cotta Fort also serves as the shelter for Catholic churches of the ships of the Spanish Fleet during that time. the same era, is devoid of a pediment. It The Cotta Fort stands as one of the oldest structures features a portico with in the City. It is the witness of the many events that three semicircular happened to Ozamiz. The two most noted occasions arched entrances lined where it has seen combat was during the Spanish era on top with a parapet. fighting against the Muslim pirates and during the last The rectangular mass of day of the Japanese occupation in 1945. the portico is crowned by three pedimented saints’ niches. Behind the façade is the nave wall with its simple, gabled roof and windows. To the left of the church stands the rectangular, three-tiered bell tower topped with finials, a domed roof and a lantern. The clock mechanism are still intact.
The interiors of the church is reportedly one of the best
preserved interior of a Roman Catholic church in Mindanao. It features a painting done in 1898 and portions made of tabique pampango, a local version of a dry wall using panels of interwoven slats or branches and covered with lime.