Batangas | Galleria de Taal

BATANGAS | Galleria de Taal

The Country's First Camera Museum

The Philippines First camera museum, a Bahay na Bato neglected ancestral house that became a gallery to showcase rare vintage Camera's.

By this time, after looking inside some of the Old Ancestral Houses in the Heritage town of Taal Batangas, we had our fill of them. Galleria de Taal proved to be different, because it doesn't enshrine people who are long dead. We didn't choke on historic information that we will soon forget, instead we feasted our eyes on some of the rarest camera's, restored and glorified in their pedestal. We even had a glimpse of the most expensive camera this gallery had, which is in the first photo shown above, cast out from a body of 24K pure gold. Makes me glad I had Nikon Camera slung on my neck.

Read More

Batangas | Our Lady Of Caysasay

Batangas | Our Lady Of Caysasay
A Venerated Church And The Girls Who Chased After Us

After visiting a lot of "Bahay na Bato" in the Heritage town of Taal and the Minor Basilica, I thought were done with churches. It's the time of the afternoon where you can go out; the sun's heat has already subsided. Thought we would already have much about the history of Taal in a day, but it's not enough really. Seeing that the whole town itself is littered with old heritage houses, the new ones obviously built from the old foundations. I have to say that visiting the Church of Our Lady of Caysasay is my least favorite, but still it's a venerated church for a good reason.

The church of Our Lady of Caysasay as viewed from the outside.

Read More

Batangas | Apacible House

BATANGAS | Apacible House

Taal Heritage Town Photowalk

Yet another must visit house in Taal, Batangas. The house of Leon Apacible is a 19th Century bahay na Bato marked by National Historical Institute (NHI) as a place where Jose Rizal, Mariano Ponce and other Filipino National Heroes would gather. Leon Apacible himself was an Officer of the Revolutionary Government, a lawyer, a judge and a Lepanto delegate to the Malolos Convention.

The house is well preserved, as it was donated by the descendants of Leon Apacible to the government due to its Historical value, the house itself felt like its had lived through times. Certainly it is old, with the displays of Caruaje on the entrance, the showroom of old photographs, anterooms and marbles floors, muebles and antique figures, unlike any other heritage houses I visited today where what is left are impressions of an era long gone, this house feels like it has blended in this day and age with people actually living in it. I say probably, kudos to NHI for the restoration and how this house is being presented to the public.

What looks like an in house garage where the restored Caruaje is what greeted us upon our entrance. This was one of the last houses that we visited for this day. I was already tired and yearning for a cold bath since I took this trip right after my night shift work. Not even being with some of the bubbliest travel bloggers I am with could perk me up. Still I trudged on knowing that this house is special, and it was with its own charming appeal. 

Mirrors, a lot of them, antiquities with shiny surfaces, glass pedestals, even the shiny gloss of portraits hung in the walls. The wooden floorboards, intricate stairs lined with iron rails, and the colors or mahogany varnishes all over. I've never been to a house shinier than this. The rooms, bath in filtered light from glass paneled windows provide gloomy atmosphere to the auras around. I've always been one to feel auras, gift of discernment I got from my mother, but I don't think I'm otherworldly or supernatural or a physic if you believe in one. I just know when a place has a presence, discerning good and evil in ways I can't explain. The Apacible house left me feeling uneasy but that we are welcomed. I guess we should feel more grateful for the rich heritage we have, and this heritage of Taal is worth exploring.

Francis Balgos is a Call Center Agent, Weekend Travel Warrior, Amateur Spelunker, Sometime Surfer, Newbie Mountain Climber, Photography Enthusiast, Certified Beach Bum, A first born son, Faithful lover, True Explorer...

Follow Me

Facebook Page
Twitter

Instagram

All Rights Reserved

Pala-lagaw reserves the right for any watermarked pictures posted

No pictures should be downloaded or copied without permission from the blogger.

Read More

Batangas | Marcela Agoncillo House

BATANGAS | Marcela Agoncillo House

Taal Heritage Town Photowalk

Like the other Heritage Houses we visited in Taal, The Marcela Agoncillo House is another Casa de Agoncillo. Could be said as the 2nd Agoncillo house because of the most prominent resident this house had ever had. The Marcela Agoncillo house was actually built by Marcela's grandfather Andres Marino. By any means, this is the ancestral house she grew up. Built in the late 1700's and known today to be one of the oldest house in the town of Taal. Heirs of the family had donated this property to the government and is now being maintained by The Department Of Tourism.

The house was turned to a museum and monument commemorating the making of the Philippine Flag, as was Dona Marcela Marino Agoncillo's legacy to our nation as the weaver of the first Philippine Flag, gaining her the title of The Mother Philippine National Flag as its principal seamstress, its the same flag that was hoisted from the window of Emilio Aguinaldo's House in Kawit, Cavite. Check this link to know more about the making of The First Philippine Flag from the National Historical Commission. 

On the entrance, one had to walk through a walkway that looks like a parking lot in the ground floor. Before taking the staircase is the commemorative tableau of 3 women sewing the flag. The three women are Dona Marcela herself as the central figure, flanking at her sides the little girl is her eldest daughter Lorenza and other girl is Delfina Herbosa de Natividad, a niece of Jose Rizal. Before we were to mount the staircase to where the grand salon of the house is place like any Spanish inspired houses, we first went through the small library and museum just a couple of flat forms from the ground floor. We were briefed by a guide of the house with the brief history of the prominent historical figure that had called this home. On this library is the hired weaver showing us how weaving is done. Taal may have a lot of Heritage houses, but only a select number of Historical Landmark, this is what makes this house apart from a lot of Kastillan houses in Taal.

Its a grand house, reminiscent of the glory and richness that adorned its halls. Exquisitely sculpted wooden boxes (Bauls), Chinese and Edwardian furniture's,  the all too familiar Capiz Shell windows, four poster beds, and the everlasting feel of old wood. 

Impersonal and otherworldly, these are but some of the impressions I got from this house. Spacious and open aired, though the family was Illustrado in rank and the children's of Felipe and Marcela Agoncillo all grew up to be highly educated and religious, their old rosary beads left not an impression of themselves. Their old crumbling books fall in decay on the shelves. As was, I wandered in the house swimming in my own imagination, enraptured by the creepy rooms and the baby grand piano by the door, the full length mirrors so clear I can only assume that silver adorned the back of this heavy glass. It's hot, its forlorn and may even be a grave of rich memories, of ages long past whose legacy continues.

Francis Balgos is a Call Center Agent, Weekend Travel Warrior, Amateur Spelunker, Sometime Surfer, Newbie Mountain Climber, Photography Enthusiast, Certified Beach Bum, A first born son, Faithful lover, True Explorer...

Follow Me

Facebook Page
Twitter

Instagram

All Rights Reserved

Pala-lagaw reserves the right for any watermarked pictures posted

No pictures should be downloaded or copied without permission from the blogger.

Read More