Like many Filipinos, I commemorated this year’s Holy Week with a visit to various churches.  I realized that I wasn’t able to do this last year, so this year it’s a must that I outdo the shortcomings of the previous year.

As always I chose to do my Visita Iglesia this year in the city of Manila because of the number of old and historic churches.

Then it was off to the walled city of Intramuros, one of my favorite historical places in the Philippines.  First stop: the oldest stone structure in the country, San Agustin Church.

Nearby is one of the most prominent churches in the Philippines, the Manila Cathedral (Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception).

As we were running out of Intramuros (literally), something caught my curious eye…

Next stop, the home of the Black Nazarene, Quiapo Church.

Next stop is the only all-steel church in Asia, San Sebastián Church.

Afterwards, it was practically all new territory for me as we headed towards the area of Malacañan Palace.

In case you weren’t counting, that’s already nine (9) churches, two more than the usual seven (7) Churches people normally visit for Visita Iglesia, but still five (5) short of the 14 churches others visit with each one representing the Stations of the Cross.  And so we continued…

The sun was slowly setting upon Manila as we run towards our last Church on this Visita Iglesia.  Sure, that makes only 12 Churches!  We only realized that we were two Churches short after we decided to end our Visita Iglesia with Santissimo Rosario Parish.