Cebu City : The Casa Gorordo Museum

Camino Entrada in Casa Gorordo Museum

The Heritage Tour de Cebu was  so exhaustive, yet so full of excitement. It was an exhilarating event that ever happened to me, firsthand, especially that some of the places we had visited were new to us, except the heritage sites like Old Churches built during the period of early Spanish occupation, the Magellan's Cross, the Compania Maritima's Ruins at the Old Port, which I have had seen many times as a young kid traveler together with my mother, the Fort San Pedro or the Fuerza de San Pedro and the Old Parian District, the first trading center of Cebu.

Pasilio

It was also a kind of a learning trip and with a blissful experience, that every delegate on that tour should remember and worth to be shared to the whole world that indeed Cebu is worthy to be flagged as one of the world's best destinations.

 

 The Wishing Well

That each delegate, should feel more than the meaning of being proud of. Proud to be of what we are now today. Proud of the legacy that our ancestors had bestowed upon us,  the culture, the tradition and the lifestyle that we have within us, which we called it their "Kabilin" to us. And because of their Kabilin, it made us to become on what is the Filipino of today. (Kabilin means; - inheritance or legacy) .

Suitor's Corner

The very basic culture that we inherited from our ancestors is to pay respect to the elders and answering them with "po" and "opo". This is just one of the basic examples of the culture that we inherited from them.

Another valuable thing that we should maintain nowadays is to practice this suitor's corner. Where the suitor is to formally pay a visit to the woman he love and marry her in a formal way. Now, those practices were not observed anymore because of modern approach that the world medium had much influenced to our youth. I am sorry to say this but this is the reality. And I am proud to say that I practiced the suitor's corner for my wife before marrying her.

Our Food

One of the historical sites and the last one that we had visited in this heritage tour, before we partook our dinner was the Casa Gorordo Museum. Which we then held our dinner at its ground floor. We finished first our sumptuous catered dinner before we finally paid a visit inside the museum. It was our last night to be with the Amazing Cebu, in which the following morning was our flight back home. 

Also located in the Old Downtown or the Old Parian District, the Casa Gorordo was originally a two-storey residential building constructed in the mid-19th century. During the Spanish colonial occupation, the Parian district was the most elite section of the city and home to its most prominent families.

Old Spanish Window and the white walls

The house was built by Alejandro Reynes y Rosales and was later bought in 1863 by the Gorordos, which was then resided by four generations of the Gorordo family from 1863 to 1979. Among its residents was Juan Gorordo, the first native Cebuano bishop of Cebu.

Then later bought by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. under its Cultural Heritage Program in 1980. Extensive refurbishment was made, and then later in 1983, the old building was opened to the public as museum. 

In September 1991, the National Historical Institute declared the Museum as a National Historical Landmark which showcases mid-19th to early 20th century Philippine Culture, Tradition and Lifestyle.

 Kitchen Counter 

All the old furnitures and other home and kitchen implements were found at the second floor. The floor sheathing and all the main parts of the building were made of Old Philippine Hardwood. 

 Second Floor

The white walls at the ground floor were made of baked powdered corals mixed with limestone and clay. Its hardwood beams were anchored on hardwood columns (post) using wooden peg elements as their stiffeners. Old Spanish wood structures were also constructed in this method for earthquake resistance.

 Beams anchored on wooden columns

with peg as stiffeners

Brick Oven in the Old Kitchen

 

Old kitchen were also found and carefully preserved in the museum on its original place. There were real ashes on the brick oven and the clay pots  (palayok) with wooden ladles (sandok) hanged on the brick wall. 

Wooden Stairs

I was in awe when I saw the intricately carved wooden stairs, also made of hardwood, that directly faces the Old Spanish Window installed down stair before I finally went out Casa Gorordo Museum.

The admirable act here that Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc is really that sincere in preserving cultural sites like the Casa Gorordo Museum.

 The Casa Gorordo Museum today

Old Spanish Houses were the living remnants and the living witnesses of our origin and connection in the past and what we are now today. So, we should observe what the RAFI had been observed more than 2 decades now, preserving historical sites and worthy to be replicated and ensued, not only in Cebu, but in the whole country, Philippines, as well.

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As a closing statement of My Cebu Series and my Heritage Tour de Cebu Series, me and my colleague, Elmar Agustin, would like to extend our sincere thanks to the staff of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc, Nancy Cudis, Fatrick Tabada and their supervisor, Ms. Haidee Emmie K. Palapar, of their warm accommodation and assistance during the course of this tour and to our free stay in Cebu at Days Hotel Mandaue to witness the 5th Triennial Awards at the Marco Polo Hotel . The entire period of our stay was really a splendid experience for a highlander like us to set foot on the pavement of the Amazing Urban Cebu. Hats off to all of you guys. Thank you so much.

Fatrick Tabada of RAFI and the blogger

(The two series of blogposts are only 

a voluntary work of the blogger 

offered to RAFI,

and the author have not signed 

any contract document for this project)

Opens

Tuesday-Sunday

10am-6pm

Admission fee:

70 – International Adults

50 – International Students

40 – Local Adults

15 – College Students

10 – HS/Elem Students

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Contact Details :

Tel No.       : +63(32) 418 - 7234 loc. 105
Fax             :  +63(32) 253-2380 
Website    :  www.rafi.org.ph
Facebook  :  www.facebook.com/rafi.org.ph.
Communication Department contact person :
Ms. Haidee Emmie K. Palapar
Contact Number :  0917 - 308 -0104
  

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Heritage Tour de Cebu Series : 

Con Tour @ the Queen City of South 

• Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral in Old Parian District 
• Basilica del Sto. Niño de Cebu
• The Magellan's Cross as semblance 
•  Ruins and Old Structures in Cebu, as living witness of my early travel
• Fort San Pedro and the Plaza Independencia 
• Old Parian District | Heritage of Cebu Monument 
•  Jose R. Gallas Halad Museum, Cebu City, Philippines

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Con Tour's Cebu Series :

• RAFI awards winners, finalists of Triennial Awards
• RAFI Triennial awardees to use cash prize for tree nursery, project expansion
• Review of Days Hotel in Mandaue, where I stayed for 2D/2N  
• A Post of Gratitude--an Easter Sunday Special

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The Con Tour's Trip was made possible 

by Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., 

to witness the Triennial Awards night 

held at Marco Polo Plaza, Cebu City, Philippines, 
last March 2012

as delegate, 

representing the Bukidnon Province, Mindanao as Blogger.

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