This will be participated by: The Casa Gorordo Museum, Metropolitan Cebu Cathedral Museum, Basilica Del Sto Niño Museum, The National Museum 7, Fort San Pedro and The Yap-Sandiego Ancestral House. The above mention would open way beyond office hours til midnight. There will be cultural shows in each museum. A kalesa or Parada would be available on this night only to transport patrons from one museum to the other.
I would be conducting a walking tour free of charge(gratuities are welcome) on this night. The ticket for the Five (5) Museums is @ 100.00 pesos only.(Valid for one-night only)
The tour would start at the Cebu Heritage Monument in Parian at exactly 6:00 pm.
Cebu Heritage Monument:
Built by National Artist Eduardo Castrillo, this tableau features Cebu’s important heritage sites. It is located at the Pari-an district and stands at a plaza across the Pari-an Fire Station. This fire station stands at the very site where the Church of St. John the Baptist during the Spanish colonial period once stood.Tableau below (first photo) features three churches in Cebu during the Spanish times: the Church of St. John the Baptist in Pari-an, the Cebu Cathedral, and the Sto. Niño Church. These churches are just blocks away from each other. The Church of St. John the Baptist in Pari-an, however, was reduced to a visita during the Spanish colonial period until it was suppressed and eventually demolished.
Then we will walk our way to the Casa Gorordo Museum.
The 19th century residence of Bishop Juan Garces Gorordo, the first Filipino Bishop of Cebu, was turned into a Cebuano lifestyle museum in 1983. Recognized in 1991 as a National Historical landmark by the National Historical Institute, the Museum keeps a collection of items with historical and heritage value.The Casa Gorordo Museum, that housed four generations of the Gorordo family, is probably the best-preserved wood-and-stone Spanish era type of house in the entire Cebu. It does not only showcase the late 19th and early 20th century Philippine lifestyle, it also depicts the typical architecture of the period. Through its collection of historical and heritage value, the museum advocates for the promotion of Social History, understanding of Cebuano Ethnicity and the concern for historic preservation.After the Casa Gorordo, we'll head to the Yap-Sandiego Ancestral House
Photo and text by Arnold Carl F. Sancover
Built during the late 18th century by Chinese merchants residing in Pari-an, Juan Yap and Maria Florido with their three children namely Maria, Eleuterio, and Consolacion. The eldest daughter, Maria, later on married to Don Mariano Sandiego, a Cabeza de Barangay of Parian in the late 1880’s.
Through the years, the house was used as a boarding house for students of nearby schools and universities until Mr. & Mrs. Val Sandiego acquired it. Wall partitions made of wood once divided the upper level into several small rooms for boarders to rent although these have been removed to bring back the original state of the interiors. The house at present is undergoing restoration which could take years due to its condition and the huge financial cost that it will entail. Anyway, plans have been set for an art gallery of famous Cebuano artists at the ground floor and a museum at the second level.
We go back to the road, on our way to The Cathedral Museum of Cebu
The building which housed the temporary collection was the old rectory of the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral. Old maps of Cebu show that the building has been around since the 19th century -- surviving wars, uninformed renovators, and the elements.
As in the typical structures of this period, the rectory was made of stone on the lower level and a combination of hardwood and other lighter materials on the upper level. Its inner walls were made of "tabique pampango," a thin wall of interlaced pieces of bamboo which was covered with lime mixed with sand. The convent roof was made of clay tiles or "teja."
The rectory shares the history of the Cebuanos who have seen it used as a parish convent, a school, a cooperative store, and even as a temporary chapel during the renovation of the cathedral. Now, it will surface in another adaptive reuse as an Ecclesiastical Museum.
Our next stop would be The Basilica Del Sto. Nino Museum
The museum is located at the basement of the Pilgrim's Center. It houses the Santo Niño vestments in various sizes. Valuable jewelry from rings to necklaces are placed in one display cabinet, gifts of devotees offered to the Santo Niño for his use during his feast on the third Sunday of January.
A camarera dresses up the original Santo Niño a day before the feast and during the procession on his feast day. Most of the Santo Niño's vestments are of 17th-18th century style, design and quality including those of the priests' and the collection of calices, patenas, ciborium, and venajeras. These are church pieces used during liturgical services.
The Fort San Pedro would complete our walking tour.
A monument to Cebu’s turbulent past, the Fort San Pedro in Cebu City served different purposes at various times in the island’s history. The fort began as a single triangular bastion when it was 
first built with logs and mud in 1565, with Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi breaking ground for the structure. It served as the nucleus of the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
Fort San Pedro is the oldest and smallest fort in the Philippines. Built by the Spaniards to repel sieges by hostile natives and Muslim pirates, the fort was deemed finished in 1738, some 200 years after it started construction.
The fort’s name was taken from Legaspi’s flagship “San Pedro” in which he sailed the Pacific Ocean in 1565. Little was known about the fort from its construction in 1565 until it was mentioned in 1739 in an official report to King
Philip II of Spain.
Paolo Mañalac
BALBINO "Ka Bino" GUERRERO
+639166673402
580 0003
