Church Country: Ilocos (4.12)

 I may not be a Catholic but I genuinely love visiting old and large churches (Italy here I come!). Workmanship, age, history and everything else in between is a combination that’s hard to resist. 


The obvious advantage of travelling with your own car is being able to make all the stops you want, when you want, where you want. This is exactly what we did, all too plenty though, but worth every stop.


Tip: Be alert! In almost every town you go to there is something to see: an old church or a grand plaza (makes you be ashamed you came from the city at times). If you’re the adventurous (and with real plenty of time too!), water falls abound the region. Sadly we didn’t get to visit any at this trip :-(




Below is a collage of all the Churches we were able to visit:

1. Balaoan Church


2. Peach colored church I forgot the name T_T 


3. Magsingal Church 


4. San Nicolas Tolentino Church


5. St. William Cathedral 


6. Bacarra Church 


7. St. Augustine Church (Paoay)


8. St John the Baptist Church (Badoc) 


9. St. Mark the Evangelist Church (Cabugao) 


10. Vigan Cathedral (Vigan, Ilocos Sur)


11. Simbaan a Bassit  (Vigan, Ilocos Sur)


12. Sta. Lucia Church (Ilocos Sur) 


13. Our Lady of Namacpacan Church (Luna, La Union)


14. Ma-cho Temple (San Fernando, La Union)


15. Basilica Minore of our Lady of Charity (Agoo, La Union)


 Tip: Don’t you dare do the same mistake I did! I forgot to write down or even take a photo of the names of the churches hence I can’t label all of them properly :-(






The oldest and most picturesque has got to be Paoay Church. The church makes you feel like you want to play dress up with Filipiniana.


The most beautiful and well kept (in my opinion) is Basilica Minore of our Lady of Charity. It is beautiful inside out. 


The smallest is obviously by the name Simbaan a Bassit (bassit in Ilocano is small)


Notice I’ve included Ma-Cho Temple. Well it’s still their version of a church right? :-) Anyway, it’s one of the best visits too. 


I believe we may not have ‘collected’ them all so it’s sort of frustrating knowing that we might have missed a good unknown one.


Full album of all churches here.


Ma-Cho Temple here.