Cebu City
— — the oldest Spanish town in the islands.
Not only on a wall.
“The capital of Cebu province, on the narrow strait between Cebu and Mactan islands in the central Philippines. Miguel López de Legazpi planted the first lasting Spanish settlement here in 1565, and the Basilica del Santo Niño that grew out of that landing still anchors the old quarter. Fort San Pedro keeps the harbour. Every third Sunday of January the city closes for Sinulog, a procession that moves a Flemish wooden Christ child through streets that have known it for almost five centuries.
Cebu City, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Cebu City is the capital of Cebu province and the principal city of the central Visayas region of the Philippines. It sits on the east coast of Cebu Island, on the narrow Mactan Channel opposite Mactan-Cebu International Airport. The 2020 census recorded a city population of 964,169, with the wider Metro Cebu conurbation crossing three million. Miguel López de Legazpi established the first lasting Spanish settlement in the archipelago here in 1565, and the city served as colonial capital until the seat moved to Manila in 1571. Elevation at the harbour is 17 metres above sea level.
The historic core sits within a few blocks of the old waterfront. Fort San Pedro, begun by Legazpi in 1565 and rebuilt in stone in the eighteenth century, is the oldest and smallest triangular bastion fort in the Philippines. A short walk inland, the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño holds the carved wooden image of the Holy Child that Ferdinand Magellan presented to the Rajah of Cebu's wife at her baptism in 1521. Magellan's Cross stands in a small kiosk across the street, marking the spot of that first mass on Philippine soil.
Sinulog is the cycle that organises the city's calendar. The festival honours the Santo Niño and culminates on the third Sunday of January with a procession and street parade that draws crowds in the low millions to the basilica and the streets around it. The dance step that gives the festival its name — two steps forward, one back — mimes the rhythm of the river current, an older pre-colonial gesture absorbed into the Christian feast. The novena begins nine days earlier and the fluvial procession the Saturday before brings the image across the harbour at dawn.