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.

(Poster courtesy of Jose Eleazar Bersales)

CEBU CITY (May 16, 2010) — Four houses in Carcar will each receive historical markers from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP). The inauguration of the markers has been set this coming May 29 just in time for the closing of the National Heritage Month.

The cast-iron markers symbolize the official recognition by the NHCP of the houses as historical sites. Usually such markers will contain a brief history of the site including its cultural and historical significance.

Under a law protecting such sites, no site that has been recognized by the NHCP as culturally and historically significant may be altered without prior permission.

Just recently, a historical marker was also installed at the University of San Carlos.

The church of Sto. Tomás de Villanueva in El Pardo, Cebu City was designed by Domingo de Escondrillas, a Spanish architect and engineer in Cebu who also designed several other edifices in the island. Building of the church started between 1873 and 1893 after it separated from San Nicolas in 1866 to become an independent parish. Back then, El Pardo was once a town that was separate from Cebu City.

The church is distinctively unique among other stone churches in Cebu. Sporting a massive fortress-like facade with a porte-cochère at the main entrance, the church reminds visitors of a small castle or a fort standing tall on an elevated plain facing the eastern coast. Did the domed-parapet host a cannon or any piece of artillery as defense for marauding invaders? Did the balcony at the top of the belfry double as a watchtower? When the church was completed by the late 19th century, Moro invasions from the south were quite uncommon already. According to the Augustinian historian Pedro Galende, OSA, Escondrillas designed the church in such a way since there was no other church in the towns of the district with such a design.

Read more about the church here.