On May 29, 2009 six museums in downtown Cebu City — Museo Sugbo, Casa Gorordo, Yap-Sandiego House, Cathedral Museum of Cebu, Basilica Minore del Sto. Nino Museum, and Fort San Pedro — will open their doors to the public from 6 pm to 12 midnight for only a single ticket worth P100. For an additional P50, guests can avail of unlimited tartanilla rides in between museums. There will be around five tartanillas that will be stationed at each museum. Continue Reading »

(Note: I wrote the article below on May 14, 2009 as a response to an earlier article which I wrote two years earlier on February 12, 2007 which got published in Cebu Daily News. The Jesuit House then was a mess but it has just been restored, thanks to its owners, and is now a museum that is open to the public.

All credits go to Fr. Rene Javellana, S.J., who wrote an essay about the house in 1989. Another short description of the house was also written by him for Panublion. It was in 2006 while browsing the Panublion website that I learned so much about the existence of the house and became so fascinated about it even until now.)

It was almost two years ago back in 2007 when I first stepped inside this Spanish-era house together with a friend who have just arrived from Manila. We were just discussing about the existence of such a house when we decided to walk-in there and secured on-the-spot permission to go inside. Continue Reading »

Entering the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, one never fails to appreciate the beauty and the massiveness of a musical instrument at the choir loft just right above the foyer near the main entrance. It stands majestically and blends graciously along with the baroque interiors of the cathedral. A liturgical music enthusiast will surely not escape his eyes on this instrument hoping to hear how it produces sound at the singing of the Gloria, the Sanctus, and the Pater Noster. Continue Reading »

A retablo at the gospel side containing a bas-relief of the martyrdom of St. Vitalis.

When the then Diocese of Cebu was about to be elevated into an archdiocese in 1936, then Bishop Gabriel Reyes (who would later become the first archbishop of Cebu) ordered the rehabilitation of the cathedral. The façade was improved while the interiors were renovated. The 19th century main altar retablo was torn down and replaced with a very simple marble altar with three stained glass windows above it. Continue Reading »