Las Piñas, Pasay, Manila Visita Iglesia

If you're a Catholic and you're living in Manila, probably the first thing you'd do is to head to the beaches this Holy Week. To most of us, especially the working class, the Holy Week is almost synonymous with summer vacation. However, to some, it's a chance to visit Christ and show devotion to Him through Visita Iglesia (and that's what I plan to do this 2013!).

2013 Las Piñas, Pasay, Manila Visita Iglesia Adventure

So join me and my family as we go around Manila and the neighboring cities of Las Piñas and Pasay to visit some of their historical churches.

Since I live in the province of Cavite, I had to carefully plan the route that we'd take to maximize the number of churches that we could visit in a day. We originally planned to visit only the ones in Manila but I pointed out that since our route to Manila would pass by some old churches in nearby cities, we might as well visit them.

 Las Piñas Church - Las Pinas City

From our home, the first city that we'd pass is Las Piñas. The city is known for Asia's oldest bamboo organ. Lucky for us it is housed in an old church. The St. Joseph Parish Church or simply Las Piñas Church. 

Baclaran Church - Paranaque City

After praying and admiring the old structure, my mom wanted to visit Saint Andrew's Cathedral in Paranaque but the heavy traffic forced us to look for another route. We drove to Coastal Road and managed to escape the traffic but we missed out on the church. Instead, it brought us to another historical church -The Redemptorist Church also known as Baclaran Church in Pasay City.

Our Lady of Sorrows - Pasay City

From there we headed to our third church, the Our Lady of Sorrows also in Pasay. It is known as the church where the assassinated Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. and his wife Former President Corazon "Cory" Aquino got married in 1954. this would be the last church that we'll visit outside Manila. 

Malate Church - Manila City

We decided to grab some lunch in a fast-food restaurant in Pasay city before heading to our next destination.  The first church we visited in Manila was the Malate Church. It is the nearest church to Pasay City.

St. Pancreatus Chapel - Manila City

Followed by the dome-shaped St. Pancreatus Chapel inside Paco Park.

San Sebastian Basilica - Manila City

Then, we visited the majestic San Sebastian Basilica. This basilica is famously known as the first steel building church in the Philippines. It was designated as a National Historical Landmark in 1973 and as a National Cultural Treasure in 2011.

Sadly, due to traffic, we missed the Quiapo Basilica, Binondo Basilica, and Tondo Church. We had to turn back to at least try to visit the last two churches on my list.

San Agustin Church - Manila City

Lucky for us, we didn't encounter heavy traffic on our way to Intramuros. It was there that we capped off our annual Visita Iglesia by visiting Manila Cathedral  (sadly it was closed due to ongoing renovation) and the oldest church in the Philippines -San Agustin Church. 

Overall, we visited 8 churches from the planned 11. (Well not bad! I still got 24 wishes!)