Right outside the museum you would see printed works of this famous artist, filling in 2 walls with ... Oh what the heck. Look at the picture! :P
Showing posts with label Museum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Museum. Show all posts
Monday, July 9, 2012
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Day 2: Ilocos Trip : Vigan Tour - Syquia Mansion
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| My brother with the portrait of Former President Elpidio Quirino. |
Syquia Mansion is the mansion owned by Former President Elpidio Quirino. Now it has been donated to the local government and is currently converted to a museum. Tourism is one of the biggest source of income of people in Ilocos, so they're preserving this as a national treasure, sharing it to tourists through offering tours.
The Tour Guide
When we got in the mansion, I saw an old guy who was seated and hurriedly went in another door, closing it behind him. We were staying there for few seconds wondering who is in charge. As more tourists came crowding in our space, the same guy who went inside the room was trying to gather us in one pack. Oh, so he was the tour guide. He was pretty feminine with his actions and speech so I figured he was gay. Not that there was nothing wrong with that. Anyways the way he managed the tour was pretty good. He was strict with the house rules: no taking pictures while the tour is ongoing, and the visitors should stick in one group.
According to him, the arrangement of the furnitures hasn't been change ever since the house was transferred to the local government. Reason behind is to easily pinpoint if something was missing in the house or not.
The golden jar right here was claimed to be given by the Emperor of china to the former president. It was said to be priceless since this one is original as proven by the emperor's seal at the base of the jar.
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| The peeping hole. |
Peeping holes were used to check the visitors at the ground floor. If they're approved, then they would be allowed to climb up the second floor, if not, then they'll remain downstairs. There's also another peeping hole carved through the master's bedroom. So the master could check whoever it is in the living area, if they're VIP's of some sort then they'll be allowed to enter the VIP room which is adjacent to this room above.
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| The VIP Room. |
The room is practically adorned by expensive furnitures that came from Europe and other parts of the country as a gift to the former president. Example of which is the golden mirror that was shipped from Europe.
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| A replica of the Spolarium painted by Gen. Luna's apprentice. |
Another feature in this room is a replica of the Spolarium, painted by the apprentice of Gen. Juan Luna. Although this one's a replica, the fact that it was a work of his apprentice, makes it really valuable. The original Spolarium is now hanged in our National museum and is so humongous that it eat up an entire wall in the huge museum.
Entrance Fee: Php 20/head
Tip: Php80
The old guy needs to get some extra tip for not only giving us information about our history, but also sharing some juicy facts on some showbiz issues related to the descendants of the former president. I wasn't really able to catch up since I don't meddle in the other people's business, but since the crowd was well entertained, and since he took a lot of pictures of us in different angles. Then boom! Hefty tip for you. :)
Woow, so much for museums. I need a breather, like getting my hands to work on some jars! :)
Day 2 : Ilocos Trip: Vigan Tour - Burgos Museum
Our calesa driver first dropped us off at Padre Burgos' ancestral house which the local government of Vigan turned into a museum. So basically it doesn't only contains the old articles of Padre Burgos but also portraits of famous people that had a big role in Philippine's history. It also contains old materials for fishing, printing press, coffins, some articles used for war and replicas of ships.
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| Padre Jose Burgos, ancestral home. |
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| Source |
So for those of you who may not know who Padre Jose Burgos is, he was one of the first filipino who became a priest, a role usually spanish conquestidors had taken the role of for years. He was executed in 1872 for writing codified essays which empowered native clergymen. Along with 2 other clergymen, namely Padre Gomez and Zamora, he was garroted in Bagumbayan field (Wikipedia 2012).
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| Burial ritual. |
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| A coffin with skeletons and pot. |
Coffins of our ancestral people are usually small since Filipinos before were really short, reaching up until 150cm to 159cm for men, and it could be shorter for women. Modern Filipinos had gone taller through time due to interracial marriages with other taller races such as Spanish, Indians, Americans, and Arabs to name a few.
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| Old printing press. |
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| Replicas of spanish ships. |
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| My sister watching intently some old portraits of historically famous people. |
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| A portrait of Ferdinand Marcos' family. Young Marcos (leftmost). |
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| Sala (living room) at the 2nd floor of Padre Burgos' House. |
A traditional spanish house in the Philippines usually used big panelled wooden floors. Salas are usually big to accommodate visitors and converting it into dancefloors on special occasions. Sliding windows are made of flattened shells called capiz, and furnitures are usually made of the finest wood such as narra and mahogany.
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| Kitchen area opening up to the balcony outside. |
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| Bunch of Anahaw Leaves tied up and used as a raincoat before. |
After a lot of ahhs and oohhss, we were all warmed up and ready for more. So off we went to our next destination!
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