 For this weekend's shoot, I intended to go to a small and relatively unknown town called Majayjay in the province of Laguna. It was quite a drive. Although there are still some old churches along and around Laguna de Bay, I had opted to go to Majayjay which was really out of the way mainly because, well.... it was out of the way and I wanted to get it out of the way. Get it? Oh, never mind.
Anyway, so there I was looking for that elusive church of St. Gregory in Majayjay when I chanced upon Magdalena which was along the way going to Majayjay. I saw this belfry. At first I thought it couldn't be Majayjay because I expected to drive about another 10 kilometers before reaching Majayjay. Whose belfy is this then? Surely, it wasn't in my list of old churches to visit.
I double tracked back and soon realized that Majayjay's neighboring town of Magdalena also had its own old stone church. It was a beautiful stone church that dates back to the 17th century and built in honor of Mary Magdalene. Here's a quick snapshot of the church.
Now, most churches I've visited are usually endowed by the town plaza in front. This church, to its credit, was flanked in all sides with the town plaza. And boy, was it active. People of all ages were up and about in various activities. You could see children at play, adolescents into sports, older folks engaged in conversation, family picnics and the ubiquitous dating couple or two. This is by far the most active and well used town plaza I've seen. No wonder its people invested in developing the area. Kudos to the town's leaders.  | |
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