Mactan Shrine

This guide to the Mactan Shrine follows Ferdinand Magellan's fleet in April 1521, weeks from completing the first circuit of the globe, as he wades ashore at dawn expecting his armored men to be enough to make a local chieftain named Lapu-Lapu bow to a rival ruler. It draws on the eyewitness account of Antonio Pigafetta, who sailed with the expedition, and on Cebu's own Rajah Humabon, who tried afterward to buy back what the islanders refused to return. Standing between the two monuments here, the guide asks what the beach itself still has to say about how that morning went.