Revealing the History and Heritage of the Philippines: One Post at a Time
We often look at the grand limestone churches of Cebu and imagine them as the sole legacy of Spanish friars, yet the true history of our heritage towns is frequently carved by the hands of the native clergy such in the case of Fr. Ruperto Sarmiento who rose from the…
If you have ever driven down the southern arterial road of Cebu, past the bustling public market of Dalaguete and near the river that slices through the town, you have likely turned your head at a structure that refuses to be ignored. It is the Conrada Almagro Ancestral House; locals…
There is a distinct shift in the air when you travel down the southeastern flank of Cebu, past the bustling city and into the quieter, salt-sprayed towns facing the Bohol Sea. We often think of Dalaguete solely as the “Vegetable Basket of Cebu,” a place of high peaks and cool…
When you stand on the seawall of Dalaguete today, looking out over the calm, azure waters of the Bohol Sea, it is almost impossible to imagine that this horizon was once the source of absolute terror. We know Dalaguete now as the “Vegetable Basket of Cebu,” a peaceful town of…
The southern drive through Cebu is often a journey through time, where the modern concrete highway occasionally gives way to glimpses of a deeper, more textured past. When you reach the southwestern municipality of Ginatilan, you are stepping into a narrative that predates its current name which a place once…
The southwestern coast of Cebu’s churches are arguably less studied and less well-known in comparison to those from the east coast of Cebu. Though somewhat off the beaten path today as well as the many years of yesteryear, heritage structures still dot the landscape. Among these heritage structures, the San…
The Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas, commonly known as the 1734 Murillo Velarde Map, is often cited as the “Mother of all Philippine Maps.” Looking specifically at the segment depicting the island of Cebu (labeled “Zebu”), one is immediately struck by how recognizable the geography and toponymy…
The history of the nineteenth-century Visayas is often told through the ledger books of merchant houses or the revolutionary fervor of the Ilustrados. We speak of the opening of the Port of Cebu in 1860, the sugar boom of Negros, and the sudden influx of British and American capital that…
Stepping into the town of Lazi on the southern edge of Siquijor, one is immediately arrested by a sense of scale that seems almost out of place in such a tranquil, provincial setting. Here, amidst the whispering acacia trees and the humid breeze of the Mindanao Sea, stands the San…
In the quiet coastal town of Valencia, Bohol, formerly known as Panangatan, the architectural timeline of the Philippines is often measured in the erosion of coral stone or the fading of timber. Yet, dominating the town center stands a structure that defies the organic decay of the Spanish era, asserting…
