04 August, 2008

Santo Niño Shrine and Heritage Museum Postcard

The Santo Niño Shrine & Heritage Museum is just one of the 29 rest houses built by former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos for his wife Imelda Romualdez Marcos. The two-storey Sto. Niño Shrine and Heritage Museum showcases the seven bedrooms of the Marcos family (one for each member, with Imelda's room with the jacuzzi as the highlight). Also on the second floor are a ballroom and a 30-seater dining conference room and downstairs are 13 guest rooms, each with its own native motif and dioramas of Imelda's growth to womanhood.

Santo Niño Shrine and Heritage Museum Postcard

The Sto. Niño Shrine and Heritage Museum houses the Italian-imported ivory Sto. Niño which attractively surrounded by lighted diamond-pattern cut glass. A St. Remedios icon stands to its right, and a St. Vincent icon to its left (which are incidentally the names of Imelda's mother and father). A brass monstrance, studded with diamonds, stands next to the St. Vincent icon. There are also rows of narra pews and rows of chandeliers light the whole place.
Inside the heritage museum are priceless art pieces, antique Chinese jars and collections of icons, original paintings of noted Filipino artists (Malang, Manalad, and Amorsolo), Italian sculptures, and French and English-period furniture. At the back of the building is a stainless steel kitchen that will impress even a 5-star chef, and overlooking that is an Olympic-size swimming pool.

From: Southwall Magazine, Premier Issue, February 2005

SOURCE:The Sto. Niño Shrine and Heritage Museum

03 August, 2008

Rizal Memorial Library and Museum Postcard

Rizal Memorial Library and Museum at Fuente Osmeña houses some 100 paintings, 50 sculptures, antique chinaware, furniture, and woodcarvings. There are also a few archaeological finds. A modern sculpture by Eliseo Pepito meets you at the door beside a mega-size 15th century Chinese vat donated by Fred Labra.

Rizal Memorial Library and Museum Postcard

As you move around the museum, you run into landscapes, portraits of well-known Cebuano figures and personalities, floral renditions, and murals. Antique chinaware from Carcar from the personal collections of Eva Mesa and Luther Galicano are stacked in a 40-year-old cabinet owned by Matilde Palicte. Its upper floor is utilized as a performing arts hall for concert and theatre productions by Cebu talents. On the ground floor is the Rizal Memorial Library which keeps some important books on Cebuano history and culture.

SOURCE:
Museum Hopping in Cebu (An Article)

02 August, 2008

National Museum of the Filipino People Postcard

The National Museum of the Philippines is the official repository established in 1901 as a natural history and ethnography museum of the Philippines. It is located next to Rizal Park and near Intramuros in Manila. Its main building was designed in 1918 by an American Architect, Daniel Burnham. Today, that building, the former Old Congress Building, holds the arts, natural sciences and other support divisions and the adjacent former Finance building, in the Agrifina Circle of Rizal Park, houses the Anthropology and Archaeology Divisions and is known as the The National Museum of the Filipino People.


National Museum of the Filipino People Postcard

01 August, 2008

UPDATE: Chinese Laborers Postcard

Last July 7th, I had an entry entitled "Chinese Laborers Postcard." I was browsing the Filipiniana book "100 Events that Shaped the Philippines" when I noticed on page 165 that the picture and my postcard are the same!
The caption on the book reads "Sangleys delivering tobacco to factories." Sangley is an archaic term used to describe and classify a person of pure Chinese ancestry. Now I know what they were carrying, but still have no clue what's the name of the church in the background .

31 July, 2008

Casa Manila Museum Postcard

Located inside Intramuros just opposite the San Agustin Church, Casa Manila is a reconstructed Spanish colonial mansion filled with period furniture and furnishings of Philippine, Chinese and European origins. The last time I visited the museum, I was informed by one of the guards that one of the paintings (he pointed it) in the sale is actually an original work of Juan Luna (complete with the LVNA signature).
Casa Manila Postcard

The facade of Casa Manila was copied from a house (c. 1850) at Calle Jaboneros in San Nicolas. The walls of the ground floors are made of adobe stones (quarried from Bulacan). The uppermost floor, the living quarters, was made of wood.