The Magellan’s Cross is the spot which was believed to have been the site where the explorer Ferdinand Magellan planted a cross upon arriving at the shores of Cebu. The site was improved in 1735 by Father Juan Albarran, then prior of the nearby San Agustin church (now the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño).

In 1834, a kiosk was built to house the cross which in turn was also encased in Tindalo (Afzelia rhomboidea) wood upon the order of Bishop Santos Gomez Marañon when devotees began to chip it off piece-by-piece believing it had miraculous powers.

The encasement of Tindalo wood that purportedly contains the cross planted by Ferdinand Magellan.

There is no proof however that the cross inside the wooden encasement is the same one that was planted by Ferdinand Magellan since Antonio Pigafetta chronicled that the natives brought down Magellan’s cross after assassinating some of Magellan’s men during dinner after the Battle of Mactan with the remaining surviving crew, Pigafetta himself included, sailing back to Spain.

The cross encased in the Tindalo wood may have been just a memorial that was created perhaps in the 17th-century.