Spanish-colonial churches are the oldest stone landmarks in most Philippine towns, and photographing them has been a thread through this blog since 2010 — a slow Visita Iglesia across the islands. This gallery collects the church photographs that survive from those trips: Pampanga and Bulacan in Central Luzon, Iloilo and Bacolod in the Visayas, Tarlac, and Baguio in the Cordilleras.
A few of these churches carry extraordinary stories. San Guillermo Parish Church in Bacolor, Pampanga was buried to half its height by lahar from the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption — the parish simply kept using it, entering through what were once the upper windows. Barasoain Church in Malolos, Bulacan hosted the congress that drafted the constitution of the First Philippine Republic in 1898. Molo Church in Iloilo City, dedicated to St. Anne, is fondly called the feminist church for the images of women saints that line its nave.
The churches in photos, 2010–2023
Many of these visits were bike rides and Holy Week trips around Pampanga and Central Luzon. For the living traditions inside these churches, see my galleries of Maleldo in San Fernando, Pampanga and the Giant Lantern Festival.