Visita Iglesia Cavite Loop

Visita Iglesia is a Catholic tradition of visiting churches during Holy Week. It is one of the traditions followed by my family that I cherish the most because it gives our family a chance to reunite and go on road trips together. 

2018 Visita Iglesia: Cavite Loop

2018 Visita Iglesia: Cavite Loop

For our 2018 Visita Iglesia, my family and I decided to follow what is dubbed the Cavite Loop. This refers to the route around the towns in the province of Cavite where Spanish Colonial Era churches are located. 

Bacoor Church - Bacoor City, Cavite

Bacoor Church interior

Since we live somewhere in Bacoor City, our first destination is, of course, our very own St. Michael the Archangel Parish Church which is simply referred to as Bacoor Church. Despite living in the same municipality, I have to admit that this was only my third time visiting Bacoor Church. The reason behind it is simple, we have our own parish in our subdivision, and Bacoor Church is quite far from where I live. Anyway, what I like about this church is its interior as it still retains that Spanish-era feels that you'd normally feel when you are exploring the walled city of Intramuros. 

Kawit Church - Kawit, Cavite

Kawit Church interior

After the Visita Iglesia prayer for the first church, we drove to the neighboring town of Kawit to visit St. Mary Magdalene Church. The church is a few meters away from Aguinaldo Shrine. What I like about this church are its beautiful retablos. The gold and white color theme give it a splendid look which would definitely give its first-time visitor that "wow" moment. 

Tanza Church - Tanza, Cavite

Tanza Church interior

Our third church was the Holy Cross Parish Church also called Tanza Church. The highlights of the church were its museum dedicated to Saint Augustine which locals fondly call Tata Usteng. 

Naic Church - Naic, Cavite

Naic Church Interior

We decided to visit one more church before noon, so we continued to the town of Naic to visit the Immaculate Conception Church also known as Naic Church. It is the biggest among the churches that we have visited so far. It is also the only church where food and drinks were offered to visiting pilgrims for free. 

After the prayer for the fourth church, we headed to Cita's Garden in Tagaytay where we booked an overnight stay. However, when it's time to depart, I had a hard time maneuvering out from the parking area causing us to be left behind by our family convoy. I didn't want to bother them too by asking them to wait for us so I relied on Google Maps instead. It gave me three routes to choose from. Among the three, I chose Indang-Naic Road as it is the fastest. 

Enjoying the scenic Indang - Naic Road 

The route was quite scenic and gives out that rural feel unlike many of the crowded streets and highways in most towns and cities of Cavite that are near Metro Manila. We passed by the town of Indang which also has its own Spanish Colonial era church but we did not get to stop as the others were not with us and the parking was also full during our visit.

Bonifacio Shrine Indang - Indang, Cavite

En route, we made a little stopover to explore the small but historic roadside Bonifacio Shrine in Barangay Limbon which is also in Indang.  I did not miss the opportunity to check it out as I have been following Bonifacio's historical trail. 

Cita's Garden - Tagaytay City, Cavite

Lunchtime!

We were the last to reach Cita's Garden but the time difference with the others was only a matter of minutes. We were planning to walk to Pink Sisters Tagaytay but decided to just continue with the pilgrimage the next day instead. The family spent the remainder of the day swimming and enjoying each company. 

Silang Church - Silang, Cavite

Silang Church interior

After checking out the next day, we continued on our Visita Iglesia. Our fifth church was the Our Lady of Candelaria in Silang. This is the second time that the church was included in our Visita Iglesia. What I like about this church is its beautiful retablo and altar. The images there were wonderfully carved and is a must-see. We were lucky this time as the church was closed during our first visit years back. 

Dasmarinas Church -Dasmarinas City, Cavite

Dasmarinas Church interior under renovation

Our sixth church was the Dasmarinas Church which is also called Immaculate Concepcion Church. It was also part of our 2014 Cavite - Batangas Visita Iglesia. What I like about this church are its doors which have carved images of the Virgin Mary. During our visit, the church was being heavily renovated. We were surprised that it was still opened to the public despite being filled with all those metal frames. 

Imus Cathedral - Imus City, Cavite

Inside Imus Cathedral

We had our lunch at Aristocrat in Anabu before finally heading to our seventh and last church which is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar or Imus Cathedral. Surprisingly the Emilio Aguinaldo Highway was traffic-free and getting to the cathedral only took us a few minutes. 

Imus City Plaza - Imus City, Cavite

Before entering the cathedral, I spent a few minutes exploring the Imus City Plaza which is located in front of Imus Cathedral. The plaza is worth visiting as there was a lot of interesting stuff to discover there. It is even worth its own blog article. Going back to the cathedral, it was quite ironic that I was not able to fully explore its interior as there was some sort of "testimonials" from select speakers. I just took photos of its interior from the back. We finished our prayer for the seventh church outside the cathedral. 

Our 2018 Visita Iglesia ended after our prayer for the seventh church. We all went home fulfilled and hopeful that this year will bring us closer (and hopefully richer). Overall, we managed to visit 7 churches for our 2018 Visita Iglesia. Well, that's 21 wishes for each of us.