MOST Visited Places in CEBU CITY ♥

Cebu is a province of the Philippines, in the country’s Central Visayas region, comprising Cebu Island and more than 150 smaller surrounding islands and islets. Its prosperous port capital, Cebu City, retains landmarks from its 16th-century Spanish colonial past, including the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño church and triangular Fort San Pedro. Tops, an observation deck on Mt. Busay, has sweeping views over the city.

 10 MOST VISITED PLACES IN CEBU CITY

1. MAGELLAN'S CROSS

Magellan's Cross is a Christian cross planted by Portuguese and Spanish explorers as ordered by Ferdinand Magellan upon arriving in Cebu in the Philippines on 16 or 17 March 1521. This cross is housed in a chapel next to the Basilica Menor del Santo Niño on Magallanes Street, just in front of the city center of Cebu City. A sign below the cross states that the original cross is encased inside the wooden cross made of tindalo wood. This is to protect the original cross from people who chipped away parts of the cross for souvenir purposes in the belief that the cross possesses miraculous powers. Some people, however, believe that the original cross has been destroyed or disappeared after Magellan's death and the cross is a replica that was planted there by the Spaniards after they successfully christianized the Philippines.

2. BASILICA MINORE DEL SANTO NIÑO (Santo Niño de Cebu)

The Basílica Menor del Santo Niño de Cebú, commonly known as Santo Niño Basilica, is a minor basilica in Cebu City in the Philippines that was founded in the 1565 by Fray Andrés de Urdaneta, O.S.A. and Fray Diego de Herrera, O.S.A.. The oldest Roman Catholic church in the country, it is built on the spot where the image of the Santo Niño de Cebú was found during the expedition of Miguel López de Legazpi. The icon, a statuette of the Child Jesus, is the same one presented by Ferdinand Magellan to the chief consort of Rajah Humabon upon the royal couple's christening on April 14, 1521. It was found by a soldier named Juan de Camuz forty years later, preserved in a wooden box, after Legazpi had razed a local village. When Pope Paul VI made the church a basilica in 1965, he declared it to be "the symbol of the birth and growth of Christianity in the Philippines." The present building, which was completed from 1739–1740, has been designated by the Holy See as the "Mother and Head of all Churches in the Philippines".

3. Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral

The Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, officially known as The Metropolitan Cathedral and Parish of Saint Vitalis and of the Immaculate Conception, is the ecclesiastical seat of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Cebu in Cebu, Philippines. Cebu was established as a diocese on August 14, 1595. It was elevated as a metropolitan archdiocese on April 28, 1934, with the dioceses of Dumaguete, Maasin, Tagbilaran, and Talibon as suffragans. Before being raised as a primatial church in Cebu, the church was one of the first churches in the Philippines dedicated to St. Vitalis and built near the fort in April 1565 by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, Fray Andrés de Urdaneta and Fray Diego de Herrera. Construction of the cathedral took many years due to frequent interruptions, brought about by lack of funds and other unexpected events. At one time, funds meant for the building of the cathedral were diverted to the Moro wars. The death of an incumbent bishop who spearheaded the construction/reconstruction and vacancies in the office were also factors. 

4. Fort San Pedro

Fuerte de San Pedro is a military defense structure in Cebu, built by the Spanish under the command of Miguel López de Legazpi, first governor of the Captaincy General of the Philippines. It is located in the area now called Plaza Indepedencia, in the pier area of the city. The original fort was made of wood and built after the arrival of Legazpi and his expedition. In the early 17th century a stone fort was built to repel Muslim raiders. Today's structure dates from 1738 and is the oldest triangular bastion fort in the country. It served as the nucleus of the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines. During the Philippine Revolution at the end of the 19th century, it was attacked and taken by Filipino revolutionaries, who used it as a stronghold. The fort is triangular in shape, with two sides facing the sea and the third side fronting the land. The two sides facing the sea were defended with artillery and the front with a strong palisade made of wood. The three bastions are named La Concepción; Ignacio de Loyola, and San Miguel. It has a total inside area of 2,025 square metres.

5. Cebu Taoist Temple

Cebu Taoist Temple is a Taoist temple located in Beverly Hills Subdivision of Cebu City, Philippines. The temple is built by Cebu's substantial Chinese community in 1972. With an elevation of 110 metres above sea level, the temple is a towering, multi-tiered, multi-hued attraction accessible by three separate winding routes. Unlike the neighboring Phu Sian Temple, the Taoist temple is open to the worshipers and non-worshipers alike. A ritual among devotees is where one prays to the gods to grant one's wish. The ritual includes washing of hands, going inside the chapel barefoot and dropping two blocks of wood. If the blocks of wood are both face up then one could make a wish. If not then it is not yet the time for one's wish to be granted and one has to come to the temple some other time. The temple is the center of worship for Taoism, the religion which follows the teachings of the ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao Zi. Another ritual among Taoist devotees, which is done during Wednesdays and Sundays, is the climbing of its 81 steps to light joss sticks and have their fortune read by the monks.

6. Temple of Leah, Cebu

Elaborate, modern Roman-style temple

7. The Heritage of Cebu Monument

The Heritage of Cebu Monument, also known as the Parian Monument, is a monument in Cebu City, Philippines. It was made by Filipino sculptor Eduardo Castrillo and architects Heradio Español and Ildefonso Santos. It is the centerpiece of the Parian Park which was the site of the Saint John the Baptist Church which was demolished in 1875 by the Diocese of Cebu. The artwork is a tableau depicting several of Cebu's involvement in Philippine history including the Battle of Mactan, inauguration of Sergio Osmeña as President of the Philippines, and the canonization of Pedro Calungsod as saint by the Roman Catholic Church. It consist of a mixture of concrete, bronze, brass and steel sculptures.

8. Chapel of San Pedro Calungsod

Chapel and architecture

Pedro Calungsod (Spanish: Pedro Calúñgsod or archaically Pedro Calonsor; mid-1650s  – April 2, 1672), also known as Peter Calungsod and Pedro Calonsor, was a Catholic Filipino migrant, sacristan and missionary catechist who, along with the Spanish Jesuit missionary Diego Luis de San Vitores, suffered religious persecution and martyrdom in Guam for their missionary work in 1672.

While in Guam, Calungsod preached Christianity to the Chamorro people through catechesis, while baptizing infants, children and adults at the risk and expense of being persecuted and eventually murdered. Through Calungsod and San Vitores's missionary efforts, many native Chamorros converted to Roman Catholicism.

Calungsod was beatified on March 5, 2000, by Pope John Paul II, and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI at Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City on October 21, 2012.

9. Cebu Provincial Museum

Museo Sugbo is housed in what was once called Cárcel de Cebú, the provincial jail of Cebu. Designed in 1869 by Domingo de Escondrillas, the lone architect in Cebu at the time, the Cárcel de Cebú was originally proposed as the Cárcel del Distrito, the main prison for the Visayas District. This accounts for its relatively large size at the time it was built. After a flurry of endorsements and independent review in Manila, the project was approved and construction commenced around 1871. It is believed that most of the coral stone blocks from the Parian church – which was demolished in 1878 after the Bishop of Cebu won a long-drawn court case against its parishioners in the 1850s – were used to build parts of the cárcel. After twenty years of use, a renovation was ordered in 1892, which added more buildings behind the main structure that now serves as the first six galleries of the museum.

10. Casa Gorordo Museum

Casa Gorordo Museum is a historic house owned and managed by RAFI through its Culture and Heritage Unit. The house was built in the 1850s and it was originally owned by Alejandro Rosales Reynes. It was bought by Juan Isidro Gorordo, a Spanish merchant, in 1863.