Jaro Cathedral

The National Shrine of Our Lady of the Candles at Jaro has two features people remember. The bell tower stands on the far side of the street, separated from the church by the road and the plaza - a Spanish-era precaution against earthquake collapse, and one of the few belfries in the country left entirely detached in this way. And the image of Our Lady of the Candles, a stone figure believed to date from the seventeenth century, is enshrined not inside but on the facade, reached by a staircase up the front of the church, so devotees climb the exterior to touch it. The cathedral was built in the 1860s, wrecked by the 1948 earthquake and rebuilt; Pope John Paul II crowned the image during his 1981 visit. Jaro's fiesta on 2 February is one of the largest in the Visayas, and the district around the plaza holds the ancestral mansions of Iloilo's sugar families.

What you actually see

• The detached belfry - the tower across the street from the church.
• The facade staircase - the climb to the Marian image outside.
• The stone image - Our Lady of the Candles above the entrance.
• The Jaro mansions - sugar-era houses around the plaza.

When to go

November to May; 2 February for the Jaro fiesta, when the district fills. Weekday mornings are quiet otherwise.

Honest expectations

Much of the building is post-1948 reconstruction. It is a working cathedral with services and weddings. The facade stairs can be busy with devotees, and photography there should be discreet.

Nearby

Molo Church is across the city; Miagao is about an hour southwest along the coast.