Hello friends!
It's been ages again since I joined this challenge. I'm lazy when it comes to cooking and we don't own any mode of transport, so I missed the challenges weeks back. I'm glad there's this topic I could share something about.
For the ASEAN Hive Community Challenge #47, the topic is INTERESTING ARCHITECTURE. When I saw this, what immediately comes to mind are the churches in my country. Some of them were built a long time ago, but has undergone some renovations.
The photos I'm going to show you are a collection of photos I took for several years. I'll be telling you some of my personal stories about them as well. Let's start!
This was the place where my parents got married. :) It might look different now than that time, but it's still the special place where they exchanged their promise of forever. It's Birhen sa Regla church in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.
Despite the title being "Churches in Cebu", I wanted to include this really pretty church in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental. This was where I was baptized as a Catholic. I spent the early days of my life in this place... and I'm missing this place a lot. I want to go back to SCC...
Basilica Minore del Santo Niño de Cebu... this is one of my favorite churches. It's the oldest church in Cebu and I somehow have a great personal connection to this church ever since I was a child.
Just a few minutes walk from Santo Niño, you'll get to this place. It's Cebu Cathedral Church. I took this photo late last year and the place is under construction. I guess it was because of the super typhoon a couple years before. It's also one of the oldest churches in Cebu.
When I was in high school, my family and I decided to move back to the countryside. We used to live in this place when I was around 4-5 years old, before we transferred to Lapu-Lapu City. This church is called Santa Monica Church in Pinamungajan, Cebu. I spent almost three years of my high school days in the school beside it... and I experienced being part of the choir for this church. Then in the middle of my junior year, we moved back to the city. T_T
When we moved back to the city, we decided to live in Talisay City which is next to Cebu City. My papa used to work here until he retired several years back. This is the main church in our city. It's called Sta. Teresa de Avila church.
There are a few other churches in my city, but I don't have pictures of them. I'll try to share them next time when I get the chance to take some shots.
I took up nursing in University and in order to get a license after graduating, we had to take a license exam. In Cebu, some students who are about to take these huge and important exams often do "church visits". The following churches are some of my favorites as well. They're also pretty unique in terms of architecture.
This church is located in Argao. It's in the southern part of Cebu. I've only been to this church three times. One is when we conducted some research for our Socio-Anthropology class in university, second was for my church visit before the Nurse License exam and last one was before my License exam for Teachers. It's funny and quite inappropriate, but the most memorable thing about this church for me was being able to catch a "Pikachu" in Pokemon GO. I was so crazy... but I still remember how excited I was that time. xD Sorry Lord~~~
This is perhaps my most favorite place to pray. It's Carmelite Monastery of Cebu. It's so solemn and quiet unlike the other churches I've been to... maybe because it's a monastery. Despite being a Catholic, I don't really attend mass... I have some reasons for it, but it's mainly because I prefer the peace and quiet when praying. I haven't been here since the pandemic... T_T
Lastly, we have this palace-like church in Sibonga , Cebu. It's called The Monastery of the Holy Eucharist or better known as Simala Shrine. In this picture, the church was still under construction, but I bet it has been finished a few years back. I haven't been back there for more than 5 years, I think. So, it must be much more beautiful now.
Despite having similarities in terms of architecture, when you look at each church carefully, they have their own unique quality. To be honest, one of the places that I want to visit and see for its architecture is also a church. I really want to see Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain someday. Hopefully, I'd get the chance to do so especially when all the construction is finished.
I'll end this post here... I hope you enjoyed the mini tour (both of the churches and my life) that I showed you through this post. :) Thanks for checking it out! See you around!!!