Manila Cathedral
— — the eighth church to hold the same name.
Not only on a wall.
“The Minor Basilica and Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception stands on Plaza de Roma, inside the walls of Intramuros. The current building is the eighth on the site since 1581. The seventh was destroyed in 1945 in the Battle of Manila and rebuilt to a Romanesque Revival design by Fernando Ocampo, finished in 1958. Three popes have celebrated Mass under its dome: Paul VI, John Paul II, and Francis.
Manila Cathedral, 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.
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The place, in three passes.
The Minor Basilica and Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, known commonly as Manila Cathedral, stands on Plaza de Roma in Intramuros, the Spanish-era walled city at the mouth of the Pasig River. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Manila and the mother church of the Philippines. The first cathedral on the site was a nipa-and-bamboo structure consecrated in 1581. The present building, the eighth, was designed by Fernando Ocampo and completed in 1958, replacing the seventh cathedral lost in the Battle of Manila in February 1945.
The current cathedral is built in Romanesque Revival, with travertine cladding, a central dome, and a rose window above the western portal. Three sets of bronze doors face Plaza de Roma, the central pair cast in Rome by Italian craftsmen in the 1950s. The interior runs on a Latin-cross plan with a long nave under a coffered ceiling. A Dutch-built pipe organ, installed in 1958, sits in the choir loft above the western doors. Stained-glass windows along the nave depict scenes from the cathedral's long history.
The cathedral is open to visitors most days outside Mass times, and entry is free. It sits in the centre of Intramuros, a fifteen-minute walk from Fort Santiago and a short ride from the Central Terminal of LRT-1 at Rizal Park. Pope Pius XII raised the church to the rank of minor basilica in April 1981. Three popes have celebrated Mass here: Paul VI in 1970, John Paul II in 1981 and again in 1995 during World Youth Day, and Francis in January 2015. Weddings book months in advance.