Abstract 24/NF Abstract

Russel Hotel in London, 2005

"It is the eye of ignorance that assigns a fixed and unchangeable color to every object; beware of this stumbling block." 

~ Paul Gauguin

Linking to NF Abstract

Brick facade/Mandarin Orange Monday

Brick facade of Liliw Church

Liliw, Laguna

"The full measure of a man is not to be found in the man himself,

but in the colors and textures that come alive

in others because of him."

~ Albert Schweitzer

Linking to Mandarin Orange Monday

Abstract 20/NF Abstract

People are like stained-glass windows,

they sparkle and shine when the sun is out,

but when darkness sets in, 

their true beauty is revealed 

only if there is a light from within.

~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Linking to NF Abstract

Plaza San Luis/Our World-Tuesday

Named after one of the old barrios of the walled city of Intramuros, Plaza San Luis is a cultural-cum-commercial complex currently composed of five houses---Casa Manila, Casa Urdaneta, Casa Blanca, Los Hidalgos and El Hogar Filipino.  Above is the facade of Casa Manila along the cobblestone street of Calle Real del Palacio (also known as General Luna Street) and across San Agustin Church.

Casa Manila is a museum showcasing a typical upper-class colonial Intramuros home. The interiors are filled with late 19th century and early 20th century furniture, artwork, and other artifacts from the Spanish era, all carefully arranged to illustrate what life was like for wealthy families of that period.  Below is a fountain at the courtyard.

Next to Casa Manila is this white-painted building that houses a mid-range hotel and a fine-dining restaurant, Barbara's.  Barbara's serves traditional Filipino and Spanish fares in an old world setting.

At the end of the block, at the corner of Calle Real and Urdaneta is this beautiful neoclassic house [that was newly painted]---a typical home of a Filipino illustrado or the privileged class in the late 19th century.

Intramuros is a 0.26-square mile fortress built in the 16th century, a city within the city of Manila, and its oldest district.

Linking to Our World Tuesday

Tourism HQ/Our World-Tuesday

The Department of Tourism (formerly Agriculture Building) headquarters in the southern section of Rizal Park in Manila.  I recognize the Corinthian columns (thanks to the designers I have worked with.:p)---an example of neoclassical architecture; designed by Architect Antonio Toledo and was built in the early 1900's.  The DOT building is the future address of the Museum of Natural Sciences.

The DOT building is located at Teodoro F. Valencia Circle, formerly called Agrifina Circle, in Rizal Park.  A marker was erected here to pay tribute to Teodoro F. Valencia (May 7, 1913 - May 4, 1987).

"Teodoro F. Valencia, better known as "Ka Doroy," was widely regarded as the Dean of Filipino Journalists. His many civic undertakings made him a legend, particularly his knack for raising funds to help the underprivileged and the less fortunate. Known as the "Builder of Rizal Park," Valencia was largely responsible for developing Rizal Park into one of the best parks in Asia.

Ka Doroy was born in Tanauan, Batangas where he finished his elementary and high school education. He earned his degree in Journalism from the University of Sto. Tomas in 1935 and took up Law at the Philippine Law School where he graduated in 1941.

Pursuant to Republic Act 6836 renaming Agrifina Circle to Teodoro F. Valencia Circle and in grateful recognition of his life-long service to the Filipino people, the National Parks Development Committee under the Department of Tourism, dedicates this circle as a living memorial to Teodoro F. Valencia on this 7th day of May 1990. City of Manila."

Linking to Our World-Tuesday

San Agustin Church/OWT

I was in San Augustin Church last month to accompany balikbayan (Filipinos who live abroad) friends.  My friends who live in London were here for 2 weeks to attend a relative's wedding.  This church is one of the most popular wedding churches in Manila.  In fact, my best-friend wanted to get married here almost a decade ago, but they were fully booked for over a year when we inquired.

Originally known as "Iglesia de San Pablo", San Agustin Church was founded by the Augustinians in 1571, built in 1589 and completed in 1607.  It is the oldest stone church in the Philippines, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the Baroque Churches in the Philippines in 1993.  

During the Seven Years' War in 1762, San Agustin Church was looted by the British forces who occupied Manila.  It was renovated in 1854.  The church was also the site where the Spanish Governor prepared the terms of the surrender of Manila to the United States of America in 1898. 

In World War II, the Japanese turned San Agustin Church into a concentration camp for prisoners.  Hundreds of Intramuros residents and priests died here during the final days of the war.  Among the seven churches in the walled city, San Agustin Church was the only building left intact after the destruction of Intramuros during the Battle of Manila (1945).  The  present structure is actually the third  to stand on the site and has survived 7 major earthquakes.

San Agustin Church has 14 side chapels and a magnificent trompe l'oeil mural on its ceiling and walls.  Trompe l'oeil is French for fools the eye,  an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create an optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions.  The nave art was painted by two Italian scenographers Giovanni Dibella and Cesare Alberoni in 1875--scenegraphers are artists who paint backdrops for operas.

It was practiced in the last centuries for prominent persons to be buried inside this church---the painter Juan Luna, Spanish Governors, statesmen and archbishops.  El Adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, founder of the city of Manila who died in 1572 was entombed in one of the chapels while wealthy patrons of the church paid for their final resting place here.

San Agustin Church

General Luna Street

Intramuros, Manila

 

Linking to Our World-Tuesday

Old/Photo-Hunt

This old church in  Paoay is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen.   The buttresses are impressive and it looks like it was carved in stone.  Its earthquake-proof baroque style architecture is a unique specimen of Filipino architecture from the Spanish era.  The parish was  founded by the Augustinians in 1593, cornerstone of the church laid in 1704.  I took these photos in 2010.  This church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

More about this church here.

San Agustin Church, Paoay, Ilocos Norte

Linking to Saturday Photo Hunt

Silliman Hall/Monday Doorways

Silliman Hall, built in 1903, is the oldest building at Silliman University in Dumaguete City.  This building serves as the university's Anthropology Museum.  Silliman U was the first American private school in the Philippines established by Presbyterians in 1901.

My contribution to Louis' Monday Doorways

Fort Santiago, revisited/OWT

I am having fun with photo effects.:p  And I think these photos are perfect for the vintage effect, don't you think?  The top and bottom photos were taken in front of Fort Santiago, an old Spanish fort in the walled city of Intramuros.  With these horse-drawn carriages, I was thrown back in time to 1900's Manila.  But I was here to attend a modern-day wedding reception at the Plaza de Moriones.  My friend's son got married---I couldn't believe it!  It was like yesterday when this handsome little boy entertained himself by drawing pictures while us girls were having girl-talk. 

my friend, Angie, giving her speech and crying at the same time.  she couldn't seem to stop crying.:p  Nico, after all, is her first-born.

This building across the entrance of Fort Santiago houses United Philippine Lines (UPL), a manning company for the maritime industry. 

Linking to Our World - Tuesday

Jalandoni Ancestral House [My World]

@ mirandablue

I have been mulling over these photos for months now.   I would like to tell you that this is just another ancestral house I visited in Silay City during my vacation in May.  But fact is, I purposely went to Silay to see this house. The Jalandoni ancestral house in Silay City was built by my maternal great-grandfather, Bernardino Jalandoni, in 1908. Although we don't have a relationship with this side of my mother's family, I was naturally curious.  Bernardino, according to my mother, used to visit them at my grandmother's house in Valladolid in the late 1940's up to the early 50's.  He would then take my mother and her siblings to Hda. Parnaso, a hacienda owned by the Jalandonis, to spend the weekend.  

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Aside from my mother's childhood memories of weekends spent in Hda. Parnaso, there was no kinship between the families.  It was probably because the connection between them, my grandfather, [Bernardino's nephew] had  passed away.

So I explored the house like the usual tourist.  I am glad that the heirs decided to preserve this house for future generations---to see how the elite families lived during the grand old days of Negros' sugar industry.  The guided tour gave insights as to how the house was built and how the family lived.  It's a huge house made of stone and wood but it's design, according to the guide, follows the typical Philippine nipa hut.  The existing wooden structures are the same hardwood that came from Mindoro, an island known for its forests and logging industry.  Most of the embossed tin ceiling trays were imported from Hamburg, Germany.  It's wooden transoms done in "calado" or cut out style, using elaborate French design are a study of combined visual aesthetics and function.

@ mirandablue
the living room

The creative use of glass, capiz shells, steel grills, wooden louvers and panels for windows continues to maximize light, ventilation and security today as it has since it was designed a century ago.

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the master's bedroom

The carved antique furniture, a retablo with religious icons, the solihia (rattan weave) daybed and chairs---the ambiance of this house illustrates the lifestyle of the Negrense elite at the turn of the century.

@ mirandablue

The heirs have entrusted the care of this house to the Silay Heritage Foundation, and it has been turned into a museum.  A doll collection, framed old photos and other memorabilia are displayed at the ground floor. 

@ mirandablue
the daughter's bedroom

The Jalandoni Museum is at Rizal Street, Silay City.  It's 10 minutes from the airport, about 30 minutes to Bacolod City, the provincial capital.

More photos in next week's My World - Tuesday

Silay City: San Diego de Alcala Pro-Cathedral [MWT]

@ mirandablue

One of Silay City's landmarks is a 20th century church formerly known as St. Didacus Parish in honor of its patron saint, Didacus of Alcala, a Franciscan saint more commonly known in the Philippines as San Diego de Alcala.  This church is right across the plaza and beside the city hall.

This church was declared as pro-cathedral in 1994, the only pro-cathedral outside Metro Manila.  It was renamed San Diego de Alcala Pro-Cathedral.

@ mirandablue

The Silay parish was established in 1776.  The first church was built with light materials of bamboo and nipa.  With natural calamities such as typhoons, and insurrection against the Spanish, I'm sure the first church was destroyed and reconstructed a number of times.  By 1841, the parish priest initiated construction of a more permanent structure made of stone and wood but it was never completed.  During the Spanish-American war, parts of the stone church were destroyed and was left in a state of disrepair.  The remnants of the old church are well-preserved behind this church.  I remember spending summer afternoons in the courtyard of the old church when I was kid.  My aunt was then living about half a block away.

@ mirandablue

In 1925, construction of a bigger church started after one of Silay's wealthy sugar barons, Don Jose Ledesma, donated a substantial amount to build it.  He even commissioned an Italian architect, Lucio Bernasconi, to design the church.  Bernasconi lifted inspirations from his native Italy and designed the church in the shape of a Latin cross like most ecclesiastical Romanesque architecture in Europe.  It has simple columns and a cupola rising 40 meters above the nave.  Being the only church in the province with a cupola makes San Diego de Alcala Pro-Cathedral unique.

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I could still hear the echo of bells ringing at Angelus.  We were usually by the fountain at the plaza across the church, and every 6 pm, the bells rang as a call to prayer.  Then as dictated by tradition, children would then kiss the right hand of their elders.

@ mirandablue

The feast of San Diego de Alcala is celebrated every November 13th.

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My contribution to My World-Tuesday

Silay City: Ancestral homes [MWT]

@ mirandablue

When I was in Negros in April, I took an afternoon trip to Silay City to visit my great-grandfather's ancestral home.  But that would be in another post.:p  For now, let me share these snapshots I took while walking the streets of Silay City that rainy afternoon.

Dubbed as the "Paris of Negros", this is where the island's sugar industry started in the 18th century.  The first sugar mill (Horno Economico) was built here in 1846 by a Frenchman who was married to a Filipina.  Haciendas were later established in Silay, and families from the nearby island of Panay also settled here because of the promising sugar industry.

The hacienderos (land owners/sugar planters) grew rich in the sugar boom---the ancestral houses built during the golden age of the sugar industry speak eloquently of the lavish lifestyles.  When the 1980's sugar crisis hit the sugar industry, planters were faced with economic hardships forcing many of the sugar barons to abandon their farms and curtail their spending.  People who worked in the haciendas went through a more difficult life--the province became so impoverished that many people went hungry.   

This is the Maria Ledesma Golez House---bought and restored by a bank (RCBC) in the 1990's.  The house at the background (with red roof) is my great-grandfather's ancestral home.

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There are about 31 well-preserved ancestral homes in Silay today--some of them have been turned into museums, most of them are still privately-owned.  

Below is the main street in front of the plaza and cathedral.  My aunt used to live behind the light blue building--and if my memory is correct, it's also where El Ideal Bakery was located.  El Ideal is an institution in Silay, baking traditional cakes and pastries in a huge wood-fired oven.  We used to buy snacks in the bakery almost every afternoon when I was about 6 or 7.

If not for the rain, I could have visited more ancestral houses.  Well, maybe next time.

These days, Negros is slowly regaining the vitality it had during the sugar boom in the last century.  But with the 2015 ASEAN Free Trade Agreement hanging over its head, the sugar industry is again facing new challenges on how to compete with cheap imported sugar in the market.

@ mirandablue

Silay City is where the new domestic airport is located.  It is an hour flight from Manila, and about 15 kilometers north of Bacolod City, the provincial capital.

Posted for My World Tuesday

The Ruins [MWT]

@ mirandablue

A few years ago, a couple of friends from Manila spent a weekend in Negros Occidental, my home province, and they were brought to a place called The Ruins in Talisay City.  The place definitely made an impression that they kept asking me about The Ruins.  I drew a blank--it was the first time I've heard of the place.  I made a note to myself to check it out the next time I'm in Bacolod. 

The opportunity presented itself in late April when we were driving to Bacolod from Manapla.  We were caught in a rainstorm and had an extended lunch in Victorias.  I asked my cousins about The Ruins---they have heard of the place but never been there.  And as luck would have it, the sky started to clear as we approached Talisay City. I would have wanted to see The Ruins at dusk, but we were thankful for the blue skies.

The Ruins is what's left of a magnificent mansion built by Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson, a sugar baron, for his Portuguese wife, Maria Braga, at the turn of the century.  The story goes that after the death of Maria Braga, the widower became despondent and he decided to build a mansion in memory of his dead wife.  It's unfortunate that the woman who inspired a man to erect this mansion was no longer around to see its grandeur.

In 1942, as the Japanese occupation swept through the islands during World War II, American soldiers and Filipino guerrillas burned down the mansion to deflect the Japanese forces from taking shelter and establishing a headquarters here. It's been told that the mansion burned for three days, destroying the woodwork, the floors, roof and everything combustible.  Only the concrete structure survived the fire, and withstood the test of time. 

@ mirandablue

The Ruins is like a mirage in an otherwise unremarkable landscape.  Built in the middle of what used to be vast tracks of sugarcane fields, it is an unexpected and delightful sight at the end of a dirt road.  I love the elegance of its Italianate architecture.  From the original tiles to the graceful balusters---I can only imagine how this mansion looked in its heyday.  There was a belvedere on the second floor, facing west, that commanded an unobstructed view of the Guimaras Strait and sunset.  


My cousins, both engineers, were discussing the structural design...I was admiring  its symmetry, proportion, arches, moldings and columns.


This mansion was said to be the largest residential structure at the time when huge ancestral homes were built in Talisay and Silay.  And with the finest furnishings sugar money could buy.

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A four-tiered fountain graces the garden. There was once a lily garden here maintained by one of the daughters, and a Japanese gardener took care of the whole garden until the burning of the mansion.  Looming over the property is a concrete tower with a tree growing on top.  I thought it was a watch-tower or a prison tower but my dark [and romantic] imaginings were incorrect.  I didn't catch the details but the tower has something to do with sugar-making.

The current owner, a great grandson of Don Mariano, had the place cleaned up and opened to the public in 2008.  A cafe was later added inside and there was an ongoing construction in the property when we visited.  


The Ruins has become a tourist attraction and venue for weddings and parties.  And it's probably a good thing---music, laughter, good conversation and clinks of wine glasses would give the dark corners of this still and lonely place some positive vibe. 

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The Ruins at different angles.

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The Ruins is located in Talisay City, Negros Occidental.  It can be reached by car through Octagon Village in Brgy. Bata, about 20 minutes from either Silay Airport or Bacolod City, the provincial capital.

Linking to My World - Tuesday