Casa Gorordo Museum

History
The Casa Gorordo Museum was originally a two-storey house built in the mid-19th
century in the historic Parian district of Cebu City. During the Spanish colonial era, the
Parian district was the most prestigious section of the city and home to its most
prominent families.
The house was built by Alejandro Reynes y Rosales and was later bought in 1863 by a
Spanish merchant, Juan Isidro de Gorordo. Four generations of the Gorordo family
resided in the house from 1863 to 1979. Among its residents was Juan Gorordo, the
first native Cebuano bishop of Cebu.
Casa Gorordo is a fine example of a Spanish colonial era house known locally as balay
nga tisa, or house with tiled roof. Its architecture, which combines native, Spanish, and
Chinese influences, is unique to the Philippines. This cultural blending of east and west
is referred to as mestizo and is a defining character of Filipino identity.
It is located in the Parian, a historic district whose origins are traceable to a parish
created by Spanish authorities in 1614 for immigrants from the Fujian province of China.
The settlement evolved into a bustling commercial hub in the next two centuries. The
Gorordos started residence in the area in 1863, the same year Cebu was re-opened to
world trade. By this time the Parian had become a neighborhood of wealthy mestizos.
The house survived two revolutions in the late 1800s and early 1900s and the Second
World War. Changes in the family’s lifestyle as well as Cebuano society and culture are
visible in the architecture, spaces and collections of present-day Casa Gorordo. Yet, it
has largely retained its distinctive balay nga tisa form, making it an iconic piece of
Cebuano cultural identity.
Background
The house is a wood-and-stone type of house that was a typical architectural type
during the Spanish colonial period. Locally called as “bahay na bato,” the house is built
with coral stone blocks, molave hardwood flooring and terra-cotta roof tiles. Displayed
inside the museum are elaborate antique furniture, period costumes, paintings and
religious images, wood carvings, decorative art and household items, and tools for
farming, kitchen and baking. It also has a gallery for contemporary art on the ground
floor.

The patio on the ground floor of the house is a waiting room for guests and its furniture
is partially made of bamboo and the ground floor also has a small gallery. The
basement for food storage is located near the patio. Among the various artifacts in the
museum are 18th and 19th century implements for agricultural and household use.
Among the agricultural implements on display are plows and other plant cultivating tools
that show the evolution of farming culture in Cebu during the Spanish era.

Among the displays are 19th century implements for clothes washing, which include
large water basins made of hardwood and clothes wringers, dryers, and wooden iron for
ironing clothes. Majority of the furniture on the second floor of the house are original
fixtures displaying intricate art forms like wood carvings that divide the house into
function rooms.

In the living room of the house are rattan sets and Vienna chairs accompanied by
cabinets, tables and beds manufactured from narra or molave wood with delicate
carvings on them. The dining rooms and kitchen display antique silverware, plates and
cups, and 18th century water jars and cooking accessories.
 Heritage of Cebu Monument
History
This towering monument is built right on the original Plaza Parian in Cebu City.
Conceptualized by multi-awarded sculptor Eduardo Castrillo, the mammoth structure
depicts significant moments in Cebu’s history beginning with that fateful fight of April 27,
1521 in the island of Mactan where native chieftain Lapu-Lapu killed Portuguese
explorer Ferdinand Magellan.

The monument also portrays the conversion of Rajah Humabon and his followers to
Christianity, local revolution against Spanish rule, Cebuano veneration of Sto. Niño, and
beatification of first Cebuano saint Pedro Calungsod. Construction of the structure
began in July 1997; its inauguration was on December 8,2000.

Background
The Heritage of Cebu Monuments is a scene of sculptures made of solid, bronze, metal
and steel appearing about occasions and structures identified with the historical
backdrop of Cebu.

The structured cut in the monument incorporates the Basilica Del Sto. Nino, Cebu
Metropolitan Cathedral, The Saint John the Baptist Church, Magellan’s Cross, a
Spanish Galleon, Statues of Sergio Osmena Sr. what’s more, Blessed Pedro
Calungsod.