Naga

About

Naga was founded in 1575 as the third Spanish royal city in the Spanish East Indies, after Iloilo and Manila, and one of the oldest dioceses in the country. While it’s lost much of its political importance, Naga is one of the most religiously important cities in the country, and the sight of one of the largest Marian pilgrimages in Asia. The locus of this is Our Lady of Peñafrancia, a wooden statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1750, the beautifully painted Peñafrancia Shrine was built to house the statue, but the ever-increasing numbers of worshippers required the construction of the new Peñafrancia Basilica Minore. The largest attraction is the Romanesque Revival Naga Cathedral, which is filled with some beautiful Neo-Baroque trompe-l'œil paintings. If churches aren’t your thing, you can wander the monument-filled Plaza Rizal and Plaza Quezon, where the city’s fairs and festivals are usually held.