Destination Visayas

Iloilo province, and its beautiful city, ranks as one of the country's foremost centers of culture, industry and trade. Located on the southwestern tip of Panay Island between the Iloilo River and the Guimara Strait, its attributes as the repository of architectural and artistic legacies, as the promising point of progress in aquaculture, and as a trove of unexplored tourist attractions give it an allure so bewitching as not to be missed.

Iloilo is the cradle of early Philippine civilization. The telltale marks of such cultural influences live on in the century-old houses, the period churches, the colorful festivals, and in the enterprising bloodline of its people. Iloilo has a glorious past as the land's great sugarbowl and the locale of the haciendas of the old rich - whose scions and daughters turned down the centuries into the dons and donas of powerful economic dynasties.

Some of the testimonies to this awesome heritage are the churches. Nowhere else can church tours prove so rewarding. The Miag-ao Fortress Church is a grand example of a medieval bastion church with onrnate floral designs on the facade; another colossal monument is the San Joaquin Church and cemetery known for its bas relief featuring the Castilian and Moorish wars, while its cemetery is picturesque for its hexagonal chapel with rose windows and twin-tiered balustrades that lead to its entrance; meanwhile, three staircases lead to the historic rock; whereas the Rennaissance - inspired Molo Church and orphanage, the Asilo de Molo, are unique for their architecture as well as for a rare product, hand-embroidered barong Pilipino in pina cloth; the Pavia Church is a red brick and coral windows cases and rightfully deserves a place in one's travelogue. These churches are no farther than two hours' distance from each other.

Tatlong Pu;lo, Unisan Island

Lizares Mansion, Iloilo

Miag-ao Church, Iloilo

San Joaquin Church, Iloilo