Ten exceptional and poorly known Spanish colonial era cemetery chapels that are still existing in the Philippines scattered in Luzon and the Visayas.

The 27th of October 2011, was an auspicious moment for the town of Minalin, Pampanga as the parish church and its liturgical collection was declared by the National Museum as a National Cultural Treasure

A free downloadable and printable PDF guide is now available for those who would want to tour Intramuros and the places where the seven major churches, except for two, used to be found within the walls. This freebie showcases the eight structures in the historic walled city, all archival images.

Probaly a beautiful structure at its heyday, the cemetery entrance arch and walls in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, has fallen into disrepair and neglect.

Vol 1, 2011 issue of Bluprint Magazine, the design sourcebook, features six churches and one archbishop’s residence in their visita iglesia article focusing on the Ilocos Region.

Last January 2010, I was invited by the North Philippines Visitors Bureau to join a media tour of travel writers and bloggers to experience North Luzon. Part of the tour included a visit to 9 churches.

In the June 2010 issue of Bluprint Magazine, San Sebastian Minor Basilica is the main feature entitled: Prefab Gothic Revival: Saving the All-Steel San Sebastian Basilica in Manila. The article is written by Tina Paterno, a New York based conservator, who is in the country spearheading, as project head, the restoration of this stunning and historic edifice. I’ve contributed images.

I’ve always been fascinated with the all-steel structure of the San Sebastian Minor Basilica in Quiapo, Manila and when the opportunity came to document it inside and out, I grabbed it.

A free downloadable and printable PDF guide is now available for those who would want to do the traditional visita iglesia in Cebu! This freebie features 28 still existing Spanish colonial era churches in this historic island province, the cradle of Christianity in the Philippines, either wholly built or with it’s façade intact.

A free downloadable and printable PDF guide is now available for those who would want to do the traditional visita iglesia in Manila! This freebie features the remaining eight still existing Spanish colonial era churches in the historic city, either wholly built or with it’s façade intact.

A few kilometers from the poblacion of Nasugbu, Batangas, in the town of Lumangbayan, aptly named as this translates to “old town” which is the original location of Nasugbu, is a Spanish colonial period church ruin that is still being used by devotees today. However, it was in this church that many of the townspeople were imprisoned and burned in 1896.

Dan Rivers of CNN was on his way to Cagayan province chasing a typhoon and along the way, as they passed San Pablo, the Isabela/Tuguegarao (Cagayan) border town, they saw this once magnificent church ruins.

This is a wonderful short feature.

This segment of the visita iglesia series features seven of the important churches within Manila.

Extant mortuary chapels in the country are hard to find. Except maybe if you are in the province of Iloilo where there are a few excellent examples. However, beyond that province and Cebu, there are also scattered across the rest of the regions but not all and I haven’t seen one from Mindanao. During my travels, I was able to find some that are now posted here.

This is a series on the different churches in various areas in the country that can be followed as a guide for the much observed Filipino Catholic Lenten tradition of the Visita Iglesia. Click the image at the right to access the rest of the posts.

This is the second part of my Bulacan Visita Iglesia series. The first can be found at this post.