Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral (National Shrine of Nuestra Señora de La Candelaria)

Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral, popularly known as Jaro Cathedral, is officially the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and is also recognized as the National Shrine of Our Lady of Candles. Located near Plaza Jaro in the Jaro district of Iloilo City, the church began in 1575 as a visita of Oton under the Augustinians and became an independent parish in 1587, while its present Romanesque Revival structure - distinguished by its departure from the style's usual semicircular arches - was completed in 1874. It is the fourth national shrine in the Visayas and Mindanao, the second Marian national shrine in these regions, and the first in Western Visayas. The revered image of Our Lady of Candles Jaro was the first Marian image in the Philippines and Asia to be canonically crowned personally by a Pope and saint, John Paul II. Visitors looking for the Jaro Cathedral mass today or a Sunday mass can also discover one of the most historically and spiritually significant Catholic landmarks in Iloilo.