{"id":849,"date":"2015-04-03T17:29:16","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T09:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/?p=849"},"modified":"2026-04-14T13:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:18:12","slug":"magellans-cross-cebu-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/magellans-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"Magellan\u2019s Cross in Cebu City: A Timeless Symbol of Cebu\u2019s Faith and History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">If you happen to visit Cebu City and would like to see an actual piece of Filipino history, visit the shrine of <strong>Magellan\u2019s Cross<\/strong> along<strong> Magallanes Street<\/strong>. This small shrine is set in a busy downtown area, in front of the Cebu City Hall and near the historic church of <strong>Basilica Minore Del Sto. Nino.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-850\" src=\"http:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/04\/Magellans-Cross-1_resized-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Magellan's Cross (1)_resized\" width=\"850\" height=\"638\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\"><em>Magellan\u2019s Cross and the painted ceiling \/ IMAGE from Jess Jacutan<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Magellan\u2019s Cross is a huge wooden Christian cross that marks the arrival of Portuguese explorer <strong>Ferdinand Magellan<\/strong> on the island of Sugbu (now Cebu) roughly 500 years ago. He and his crew were the first Europeans to visit the Philippines, on a mission to search for the spice islands of Molucca for the King of Spain. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Magellan met and befriended the native chief, Rajah Humabon, and eventually, he, his wife, and his native warriors agreed to be baptized into the Roman Catholic faith. Magellan planted the cross to signify this important event. It also marked the beginning of the propagation of the Christian religion all over the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-851\" src=\"http:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/04\/Magellans-Cross-2_resized-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Magellan's Cross (2)_resized\" width=\"638\" height=\"850\" srcset=\"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/04\/Magellans-Cross-2_resized-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/04\/Magellans-Cross-2_resized-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/04\/Magellans-Cross-2_resized.jpg 1310w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 638px) 100vw, 638px\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\"><em>The shrine housing Magellan\u2019s Cross \/ IMAGE from Jess Jacutan<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">The 485-year-old cross now stands at a small shrine, encased in <em>tindalo<\/em> wood to prevent people from chipping away parts of it in the belief that it has miraculous powers. The ceiling is painted with a scene depicting Magellan\u2019s landing in Cebu in 1521, and the planting of the original cross on the shore. It is common practice to light candles and drop coins at the foot of the cross. Magellan\u2019s cross is a popular tourist attraction and an interesting one particularly for people who like delving into the depths of the Philippines \u2019 rich history and culture.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">You can reach the shrine by taking a jeepney or taxi to historic Colon Street. Just tell the driver to drop you off at Colon corner Osme\u00f1a Boulevard. From there, walk a few blocks along Osme\u00f1a Boulevard going in the direction of Cebu City Hall.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\"><em>Text and Photo by Jess Jacutan\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Philippine Primer features the beauty and wonder of Magellan&#8217;s Cross in Cebu City <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,534,57],"tags":[3098,3963,3964,3965,3966],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cebu","category-cebu-part-1-2017-spot","category-historical","tag-cebu-city","tag-magellans-cross","tag-magallanes-street","tag-cebu-city-hall","tag-basilica-minore-del-sto-nino"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14926,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/14926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}