The six senses.

There’s an ongoing exhibit of artworks rendered by the late Msgr. Virgilio Yap at the Cathedral Museum of Cebu. The various display of masterpieces pay tribute to a great artist and priest who died of leukemia at exactly 15 years ago. The exhibit Retrospective, A Collection of Artworks features a collection of abstract works of art including some news and magazine clippings about the artist during his lifetime. Some of his achievements are also highlighted like his unusual rendering of the crucified Christ at the altar of the Gethsemane Parish in Mandaue City, Cebu and his founding of an ecclesiastical museum which is now the Cathedral Museum of Cebu.

The Cathedral Museum of Cebu is located beside the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral and is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 9 AM to 12 NN and 1 PM to 5 PM. Continue Reading »

CEBU CITY (August 8, 2010 5:30 PM) — Museo Sugbo opened two new galleries just this afternoon — one featuring the colorful history of Cebu media and the other one, an art gallery. The National Museum also unveiled two traveling exhibitions featuring Philippine flora (photo above) and a photo gallery of bridges in the Philippines built during the Spanish colonial-era. The museum’s souvenir and coffee shops were also opened during the event. Continue Reading »

The Heritage of Cebu has inked a publication agreement with The Latin American Library of Tulane University to feature Richard E. Ahlborn’s photographs of historical churches in Cebu. Ahlborn came to the Philippines in 1965 to conduct a photographic survey of Filipino-Hispanic architecture and art in the Philippines.

The photographs are rare inasmuch as it features certain portions of existing historical churches in Cebu in its most original form. Post-Vatican II, a number of Spanish colonial churches in Cebu and elsewhere in the Philippines underwent a flurry of “ill-advised” renovations and expansions. The modifications sometimes depended on the taste of the parish priest who is assigned to a particular church. Some photographs also feature valuable church furnishings that are already gone since it have either been sold (sometimes at the instance of the parish priest), stolen or destroyed.

This series will start off today and will run for several weeks.

CARCAR, CEBU (May 29, 2010) – Four of Carcar’s largest and oldest ancestral houses from the Spanish colonial period — Balay na Tisa, Ang Dakong Balay (Don Florencio Noel House), the Mercado Mansion and the Silva House get recognition and protection as national historical landmarks in ceremonies today in Carcar by top officials of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (formerly the National Historical Institute) to culminate May’s National Heritage Month activities in Cebu.

The Hon. Ambeth R. Ocampo, National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) chairman, will unveil and turn-over four heritage house markers to the owners of Carcar Spanish colonial ancestral houses dating from the mid-19th century that belong to the descendants of the Sarmiento-Osmeña family, the Noel family, the Mercado-Lucero family and the Silva family.
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Above: The historical marker beside the main entrance of the Arthur Dingman Building. (Photo by Mark Andrew Jorolan)

CEBU CITY (May 22, 2010) — A National Historical Marker from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (formerly National Historical Institute) was installed at the University of San Carlos and inaugurated on May 21, 2010 with the university officials and some members of the commission in attendance.

The marker, installed right beside the main entrance of the Arthur Dingman Building, contains a brief history of the university starting from its humble beginnings as a seminary-college established at the site of the former Colegio San Ildefonso of the Jesuits.