Cebú Heritage Watch

[slerz]

meron pang iba aside from Jai Alai... I forgot the names of those buildings...

Originally Posted by arnoldsa

thanks animo, rusty18, and slerz..

anytime bai

[slerz]

meron pang iba aside from Jai Alai... I forgot the names of those buildings...

Originally Posted by arnoldsa

thanks animo, rusty18, and slerz..

anytime bai

[LordCarnal]

How about the Metropolitan Theater?

[LordCarnal]

How about the Metropolitan Theater?

[Animo]

Originally Posted by arnoldsa

thanks animo, rusty18, and slerz..

Your Welcome. We really appreciate your efforts.

[Animo]

Originally Posted by arnoldsa

thanks animo, rusty18, and slerz..

Your Welcome. We really appreciate your efforts.

[Jefferyi]

So paryente diay ka sa either Aboitiz, Climaco or Osmena?

[Jefferyi]

So paryente diay ka sa either Aboitiz, Climaco or Osmena?

[Animo]

AFTER SPEEDING ON high gear throughout the year, we need Christmas to slow down and recharge. It is the time for returning to family and friends, and going back to the familiar rituals and traditions that reconnect us to our roots.
I reconnected with my Cebuano roots last Dec. 16 when I attended a revival of an old Christmas tradition in Cebu's Parian district.

The Parian of Cebu was once a residential district in the center of the city that focused on its main street, Calle Colòn, said to be the oldest street in the country.

The district survived many identity transformations. Beginning as a ghetto of Chinese merchants established toward the end of the 16th century, the Parian district evolved into a market and trading center.

As the center of Cebuano business activity, the Parian peaked in the late 19th as the most prestigious section of the city, where the founding families of Cebu, mestizos of Chinese and Spanish origin, lived and worked.

Houses in the Parian were not simply dwellings. They were "substantial stone-and-wood houses that followed a distinct pattern: the solid, permanent-looking structure fronting the street, the bodega ground floor and the upper-floor living quarters with the often excessively large rooms, wide windows and azoteas that responded to the need for ventilation and the impulse toward gracious display... that spoke of the Hispanified lifestyle of the local principalia," writes noted Cebuano scholar Resil Mojares.

The vanished architecture in Cebu's Parian follows the shophouse tradition prevalent in most Chinese-influenced trading posts in Asia of the era like Pekalongan (Indonesia), Malacca (Malaysia), the Rattanakosin section of Bangkok, and Vigan (Philippines).

Entrepreneurial families conducted business and warehoused their merchandise or agricultural produce on the ground floor of their shophouses. Families lived on the second floor.

Today's Parian has become an inner-city, working-class neighborhood. The old families have all moved to other parts of the city, country and world, leaving behind their houses and their Parian lifestyle.

Only the former Gorordo family home (now maintained by the Ram¢n Aboitiz Foundation as the Casa Gorordo Museum), the Mancao-Sandiego House and the former Jesuit Residence (now a hardware warehouse) remain.
Kaguikan sa Parian, an association of descendants of the old Parian families that aims to reawaken Cebuanos to the history of Parian, joined the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation and the Barangays of Parian and Tinago to revive the Misa de Gallo procession, a forgotten Christmas tradition that originated in the Parian.

Joyful procession

For the nine days leading up to Christmas, a pre-dawn procession joyfully winds its way from Plaza Parian to Cebu Cathedral, reenacting the Nativity with neighborhood children taking part in the tableau. The procession street-dances its way to the cathedral.

Children bring life-size papier-mache lambs and other animals. Boys compete for the honor of pulling the huge, life-size paper replicas of the Three Kings astride life-size camels along the streets to the cathedral.

Neighborhood bands march in the procession, each accompanying a choir of children singing traditional Cebuano Christmas carols.

After a festive Misa de Gallo in Cebu Cathedral, the procession returns to Plaza Parian to enjoy a traditional painit (snack) of Cebuano delicacies.

The Misa de Gallo procession is a neighborhood celebration where residents give thanks for the blessings received during the past year. More important, it is a celebration where bonds are strengthened -- between neighbors, between current and former residents of the district, and, most significantly, between present and past.

Much of the credit for reviving the procession goes to Kaguikan sa Parian, but its moving spirit is Val Sandiego, who traces his roots to Parian families, Mancao-Sandiego.

Val researched the Misa de Gallo tradition, conceptualized the entire procession, and trained the neighborhood children who participated in it.

There was a feel of authenticity to the celebration. It was one participated in joyfully by residents, not an artificially conceived, well-rehearsed act simply for tourist consumption.

And to Val's credit, everyone had a good time. I certainly did and will definitely return for more next year.

"As a city moves through time and space, much of what it once was remains. Yet, much of what it can become is also expressed," observes Resil.

By reviving its past traditions, Kaguikan sa Parian teaches Cebu to express what it can become. It shows Cebuanos proudly living their heritage while firmly being on the forefront of 21st century life.

It looks like Kaguikan sa Parian is taking Cebu in a direction that I am proud to be a part of.

E-mail the author at afvillalon@hotmail.com
http://www.inq7.net/globalnation/sec.../dec/29-01.htm

[Animo]

AFTER SPEEDING ON high gear throughout the year, we need Christmas to slow down and recharge. It is the time for returning to family and friends, and going back to the familiar rituals and traditions that reconnect us to our roots.
I reconnected with my Cebuano roots last Dec. 16 when I attended a revival of an old Christmas tradition in Cebu's Parian district.

The Parian of Cebu was once a residential district in the center of the city that focused on its main street, Calle Colòn, said to be the oldest street in the country.

The district survived many identity transformations. Beginning as a ghetto of Chinese merchants established toward the end of the 16th century, the Parian district evolved into a market and trading center.

As the center of Cebuano business activity, the Parian peaked in the late 19th as the most prestigious section of the city, where the founding families of Cebu, mestizos of Chinese and Spanish origin, lived and worked.

Houses in the Parian were not simply dwellings. They were "substantial stone-and-wood houses that followed a distinct pattern: the solid, permanent-looking structure fronting the street, the bodega ground floor and the upper-floor living quarters with the often excessively large rooms, wide windows and azoteas that responded to the need for ventilation and the impulse toward gracious display... that spoke of the Hispanified lifestyle of the local principalia," writes noted Cebuano scholar Resil Mojares.

The vanished architecture in Cebu's Parian follows the shophouse tradition prevalent in most Chinese-influenced trading posts in Asia of the era like Pekalongan (Indonesia), Malacca (Malaysia), the Rattanakosin section of Bangkok, and Vigan (Philippines).

Entrepreneurial families conducted business and warehoused their merchandise or agricultural produce on the ground floor of their shophouses. Families lived on the second floor.

Today's Parian has become an inner-city, working-class neighborhood. The old families have all moved to other parts of the city, country and world, leaving behind their houses and their Parian lifestyle.

Only the former Gorordo family home (now maintained by the Ram¢n Aboitiz Foundation as the Casa Gorordo Museum), the Mancao-Sandiego House and the former Jesuit Residence (now a hardware warehouse) remain.
Kaguikan sa Parian, an association of descendants of the old Parian families that aims to reawaken Cebuanos to the history of Parian, joined the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation and the Barangays of Parian and Tinago to revive the Misa de Gallo procession, a forgotten Christmas tradition that originated in the Parian.

Joyful procession

For the nine days leading up to Christmas, a pre-dawn procession joyfully winds its way from Plaza Parian to Cebu Cathedral, reenacting the Nativity with neighborhood children taking part in the tableau. The procession street-dances its way to the cathedral.

Children bring life-size papier-mache lambs and other animals. Boys compete for the honor of pulling the huge, life-size paper replicas of the Three Kings astride life-size camels along the streets to the cathedral.

Neighborhood bands march in the procession, each accompanying a choir of children singing traditional Cebuano Christmas carols.

After a festive Misa de Gallo in Cebu Cathedral, the procession returns to Plaza Parian to enjoy a traditional painit (snack) of Cebuano delicacies.

The Misa de Gallo procession is a neighborhood celebration where residents give thanks for the blessings received during the past year. More important, it is a celebration where bonds are strengthened -- between neighbors, between current and former residents of the district, and, most significantly, between present and past.

Much of the credit for reviving the procession goes to Kaguikan sa Parian, but its moving spirit is Val Sandiego, who traces his roots to Parian families, Mancao-Sandiego.

Val researched the Misa de Gallo tradition, conceptualized the entire procession, and trained the neighborhood children who participated in it.

There was a feel of authenticity to the celebration. It was one participated in joyfully by residents, not an artificially conceived, well-rehearsed act simply for tourist consumption.

And to Val's credit, everyone had a good time. I certainly did and will definitely return for more next year.

"As a city moves through time and space, much of what it once was remains. Yet, much of what it can become is also expressed," observes Resil.

By reviving its past traditions, Kaguikan sa Parian teaches Cebu to express what it can become. It shows Cebuanos proudly living their heritage while firmly being on the forefront of 21st century life.

It looks like Kaguikan sa Parian is taking Cebu in a direction that I am proud to be a part of.

E-mail the author at afvillalon@hotmail.com
http://www.inq7.net/globalnation/sec.../dec/29-01.htm

[Askal82]

Originally Posted by arnoldsa

Bro what's the status of the Metropolitan Theater?

I found these:

http://www.wcities.com/en/record/,17...ame=&display=1
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/1564/
http://www.estanli.net/blog/?p=446

I hope these conservation efforts goes as far as reconstructing some significant surrounding structures in Manila particularly the Intramuros.

[Askal82]

Originally Posted by arnoldsa

Bro what's the status of the Metropolitan Theater?

I found these:

http://www.wcities.com/en/record/,17...ame=&display=1
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/1564/
http://www.estanli.net/blog/?p=446

I hope these conservation efforts goes as far as reconstructing some significant surrounding structures in Manila particularly the Intramuros.

[LordCarnal]

I'll try to ask permission from the Sy Family to enter their warehouse, which was once a 17th Century Jesuit House.. The Ateneo website says that the house is still intact inside (it looks like a church convento daw)..

If I have time, I might also go to Carcar..

[LordCarnal]

I'll try to ask permission from the Sy Family to enter their warehouse, which was once a 17th Century Jesuit House.. The Ateneo website says that the house is still intact inside (it looks like a church convento daw)..

If I have time, I might also go to Carcar..

[LordCarnal]

Originally Posted by Animo

Only the former Gorordo family home (now maintained by the Ram¢n Aboitiz Foundation as the Casa Gorordo Museum), the Mancao-Sandiego House and the former Jesuit Residence (now a hardware warehouse) remain.
Kaguikan sa Parian, an association of descendants of the old Parian families that aims to reawaken Cebuanos to the history of Parian, joined the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation and the Barangays of Parian and Tinago to revive the Misa de Gallo procession, a forgotten Christmas tradition that originated in the Parian.

Sandiego-Mancao Ancestral Home


Jesuit Residence. The house is still intact inside.. The original walls of the compound made of cut coral can still be seen outside. (For more info, see the Ateneo de Manila Website, search for Heritage Tours and click on Visayas>Cebu)

[LordCarnal]

Originally Posted by Animo

Only the former Gorordo family home (now maintained by the Ram¢n Aboitiz Foundation as the Casa Gorordo Museum), the Mancao-Sandiego House and the former Jesuit Residence (now a hardware warehouse) remain.
Kaguikan sa Parian, an association of descendants of the old Parian families that aims to reawaken Cebuanos to the history of Parian, joined the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation and the Barangays of Parian and Tinago to revive the Misa de Gallo procession, a forgotten Christmas tradition that originated in the Parian.

Sandiego-Mancao Ancestral Home


Jesuit Residence. The house is still intact inside.. The original walls of the compound made of cut coral can still be seen outside. (For more info, see the Ateneo de Manila Website, search for Heritage Tours and click on Visayas>Cebu)

[LordCarnal]

WALK FOUR: City Hall and its Environs

From the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, we walk further south towards the Cebu City Hall. Situated right at the heart of the city's heritage district, there is nothing much of value to the city hallbuilding except that it is the site of the city's administrative and legislative power. During the administration of Mayor Alvin B. Garcia, an annex building was constructed at the back to prepare the old structure for rehabilitation. When Mayor Tomas Osmeña assumed office, the College of Architecture and Fine Arts of the University of San Carlos was commissioned to do the overdue task. Up to now, the old city hall building's anticipated renovation has not yet begun.

A dilapidated limousine. Sakay na!



Prudential Bank and Trust Company. A similar building (with strangely the same architecture can also be found in Manila).






Colegio del Santo Niño (right) and Magellan's Cross Park which was rehabilitated by the Cebu Parks and Playgrounds Commission during the administration of Mayor Alvin Garcia. Right now, it needs re-rehabilitation.



Magellan's Cross


The old city hall building









Towards Malacañang sa Sugbo. To the left is a restored building by MCWD; to the right is another pre-war building that needs rehabilitation. The entire stretch of the road itself including the sidewalks need to be rehabilitated.





City Hall annex building. A marker at the entrance reads "Presented to the people of the city of Cebu. Constructed during the incumbency of Mayor Alvin Garcia and City Council, ....." The office of the mayor is at the top floor.








Gotiaco building; needs rehabilitation. A perfect site for a boutique hotel or a restaurant with an outdoor cafe...





The pre-war "Banco delos Islas Filipinas" building. A marker written both in Spanish and English states that this bank was one of the few established alongside with the ones in Manila, Ilo-ilo, and Davao... This is also the first bank in Cebu that has a walk-in safety deposit box section. Even up to now, the bank is still very very secured -- it even looks more like a jail when viewed from outside.





East entrance to the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño. A basement museum -- which features the Santo Niño's golden robes of the past, some crown jewels of the image, some Spanish documents, and others -- is located near this entrance.




The newly rehabilitated Basila Minore del Santo Niño's belltower in the foreground. To the background is the defunct Centerpoint Hotel, the first highrise building outside Manila. Cebu's first SM (which was once literally a shoe mart) was located at the first floor. The hotel also boasted of a revolving restaurant offering a 360 view of the city. Right now, only Finland Massage (with all those hocus pocus services) occupies a part of the building.



One of the Spanish-style lampposts that dominate the roads of downtown Cebu.

[LordCarnal]

WALK FOUR: City Hall and its Environs

From the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, we walk further south towards the Cebu City Hall. Situated right at the heart of the city's heritage district, there is nothing much of value to the city hallbuilding except that it is the site of the city's administrative and legislative power. During the administration of Mayor Alvin B. Garcia, an annex building was constructed at the back to prepare the old structure for rehabilitation. When Mayor Tomas Osmeña assumed office, the College of Architecture and Fine Arts of the University of San Carlos was commissioned to do the overdue task. Up to now, the old city hall building's anticipated renovation has not yet begun.

A dilapidated limousine. Sakay na!



Prudential Bank and Trust Company. A similar building (with strangely the same architecture can also be found in Manila).






Colegio del Santo Niño (right) and Magellan's Cross Park which was rehabilitated by the Cebu Parks and Playgrounds Commission during the administration of Mayor Alvin Garcia. Right now, it needs re-rehabilitation.



Magellan's Cross


The old city hall building









Towards Malacañang sa Sugbo. To the left is a restored building by MCWD; to the right is another pre-war building that needs rehabilitation. The entire stretch of the road itself including the sidewalks need to be rehabilitated.





City Hall annex building. A marker at the entrance reads "Presented to the people of the city of Cebu. Constructed during the incumbency of Mayor Alvin Garcia and City Council, ....." The office of the mayor is at the top floor.








Gotiaco building; needs rehabilitation. A perfect site for a boutique hotel or a restaurant with an outdoor cafe...





The pre-war "Banco delos Islas Filipinas" building. A marker written both in Spanish and English states that this bank was one of the few established alongside with the ones in Manila, Ilo-ilo, and Davao... This is also the first bank in Cebu that has a walk-in safety deposit box section. Even up to now, the bank is still very very secured -- it even looks more like a jail when viewed from outside.





East entrance to the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño. A basement museum -- which features the Santo Niño's golden robes of the past, some crown jewels of the image, some Spanish documents, and others -- is located near this entrance.




The newly rehabilitated Basila Minore del Santo Niño's belltower in the foreground. To the background is the defunct Centerpoint Hotel, the first highrise building outside Manila. Cebu's first SM (which was once literally a shoe mart) was located at the first floor. The hotel also boasted of a revolving restaurant offering a 360 view of the city. Right now, only Finland Massage (with all those hocus pocus services) occupies a part of the building.



One of the Spanish-style lampposts that dominate the roads of downtown Cebu.

[Sinjin P.]

Great efforts

[Sinjin P.]

Great efforts