Taal Heritage Walk

We climbed up the bell tower of what has been noted as the largest basilica in the orient. What we thought to be an endless climb through flights of stairs and claustrophobic chambers were rewarded by a breathtaking landscape of a charming town straight out from Spanish Taal with blue Balayan Bay in the background.

Heritage best describes the townscape of Taal. Thronged around this old town’s narrow streets are structures dating back to the Spanish Colonial period. They were preserved and restored for generations to relive what we knew as stories written in textbooks about our history.

A leisurely walk through this bucolic town is taking a trip back to 19^th century Philippines. This was the coffee-boom era when Taal became the premier economic center of the province of Batangas.

This was also a period when a wealthy and educated society began to embrace the idea of independence and revolution. In 1896, Batangas became one of the eight provinces to revolt against Spain. Taal was then home to a number of Filipino patriots.

The history of Taal is linked to the violent Taal Volcano. Stories of horrendous earthquakes that created wide gaps on the earth’s crust, houses engulfed in horrific flames and structures sliding into the nearby lake, and beastly crocodiles blasted several meters into the air have been reported since the volcano’s first recorded eruption in 1591 and its succeeding explosions. But since its foundation in 1572, the town has been relocated, rebuilt, and even became the provincial capital of Batangas in 1754.

Its church, the Basilica Minore de San Martin de Tours was transferred as the town was rebuilt and moved from San Nicolas near the Taal Lake to its present site. The massive structure with baroque architectural elements dominating the town plaza was constructed in 1858.

The Taal Basilica is considered to be the largest Catholic church in Asia. Its cavernous interior is decorated with trompe l’oeil murals that highlight the design of the grand main altar.

A simple but huge structure near the basilica’s main entrance is the Escuela Pia. This historic building serve as a reminder of the educational system brought to us by Spain.

Taal is amazing because it is one of the few places in the country where a good number of well-preserved ancestral houses called bahay-na-bato are still in use. We are fortunate that some owners of these antique houses turned their private spaces into living museums, showcasing the historical and cultural legacy of their ancestors.

The Marcela Agoncillo House is one of the oldest in Taal. Now a museum, it is a historical landmark dedicated to the making of the Philippine flag. It was home to the first Filipino diplomat Felipe Agoncillo and wife Marcela Mariño Agoncillo, seamstress of the Philippine flag.

Like most houses built during Spanish colonial period, the main living quarters of the Agoncillo house was on the second floor. We learned that the main rooms of the house still have the original wooden floorboards where an arrangement of antique furniture style known as Luis Quince and Carlos Trese, are mixed with Viennese bentwood pieces.

A few walks from the Agoncillo House is the Art Deco house of Don Leon Apacible. This historic house’s guests list would include Jose Rizal, Mariano Ponce and other Filipinos who received education in Europe. Leon Apacible became General Aguinaldo’s finance officer. He was also one of the delegates to the Malolos Congress representing Lepanto.

What is particularly interesting in this house is the art-deco design carved into the floors and inlaid into doors. Matching the antique interior are furniture, paintings, and heirloom objects revealing the affluent  lifestyle of the Apacibles.

Across the Apacible House is the Ilagan-Barrion House which houses the first and only vintage camera museum in the country. The Ilagan -Barrion house was built circa 1870 by Domingo Ilagan and Maria Martinez.

The house had been totally neglected for several years until the great grandson of the house’s original owner Manny Inumerable painstakingly restored their ancestral home to house his extensive collection of rare vintage cameras in a musuem he named Galleria Taal.

Just like the Ilagan-Barion house, ancestral houses in Taal were being restored for adaptive reuse. Villa Tortuga, a bed and breakfast inn is houses in a huge bahay-na-bato. Its interiors and furnishings were designed by Camp Suki-fame Lito Perez.

Stepping inside this restored bahay-na-bato becomes more engaging because guests are encourage to wear period costumes while they dine and unwind in Villa Tortuga.

Two ancestral houses of Don Eulalio Villavicencio and Doña Gliceria Marella de Villavicencio have been preserved and restored as landmarks of our architectural heritage and as veritable shrines of bravery and patriotism. The older one is a pre-1850 bahay-na-bato referred to as Casa Villavicencio.

Casa Villavicencio belongs to the same league of the ancestral houses in Taal where its original owners took an active role in the revolution against the Spanish rule and as a place where important activities were held regarding the revolution.

Adjacent to Casa Villavicencio is the house known as the Villavicencio Wedding Gift House. The house received this sobriquet because the house was built as a lavish wedding present of Don Eulalio to his wife Gliceria on their nuptials.

Although the wedding gift house has the same architectural elements of houses built during that period, we find its look and feel to be more cheerful and feminine than the adjacent ancestral house.

 At the corner of Casa Villavicencio is a street leading to San Lorenzo steps. The 125 steps in this path were made of thick solid granite called piedra china. We took this path on our way to the Caysasay Church.

Before reaching the church, we made a side trip to the Sta. Lucia Arch that holds the sacred wells where it is believed the Blessed Virgin made an apparition in the 1600s.

The Sta. Lucia Arch is a popular pilgrimage site where devotees believe that the water from the left well cures head injuries and the right well heals the body. Devotees usually pray at the nearby grotto and light candles before drawing water from the well.

Enshrined in Caysasay Church is the image of the Nuestra Señora de Inmaculada Concepcion de Caysasay. The story goes that in 1603, the image of the Immaculate Concepcion was caught in a net while the town chief, Juan Maningkad was fishing near the mouth of the river channel. It is said that the image would disappear from its shrine and common folks would claim seeing the image atop a tree, guarded by a kingfisher, or casaycasay.

Climbing up the 125 steps, we walked back to the narrow street on our way to the palengke. The walking tour made us hungry. Perhaps this is the reason why we overspent in buying kilos of special tapa and longganisa. That  supply of Taal specialties lasted for a week in our breakfast table.

This is my entry for the Pinoy Travel Bloggers’ Blog Carnival with Traveler on Foot hosting the October 2012 theme Walking Tours.

Villavicencio Wedding Gift House

We often find old houses called bahay-na-bato as settings of significant events when reading books about our history. In illustrations, a bahay-na-bato emerges in the background completing a historic scene. Ancestral houses are part of our culture and history.

In the heritage town of Taal, two ancestral houses of the Villavicencios have been preserved and restored as landmarks of our architectural heritage and as veritable shrines of bravery and patriotism.

Don Eulalio Villavicencio was a ship captain who owned an imposing pre-1850 bahay-na-bato on the northern slope of Taal town. We know this today as Casa Villavicencio. As a lavish wedding present to his wife Gliceria, he built another house on the same street, a few meters away from his ancestral house –This is the 1871 Villavicencio Wedding Gift House.

Although the wedding gift house has the same architectural elements of houses built during that period, we find its look and feel to be more cheerful and feminine than the adjacent ancestral house. On our visit, we passed through the zaguan, where the family carriage was parked in the olden days. A wide staircase led us to the caida where portraits of the couple are lording over the house.

 The prosperous couple owned vast landholdings, rice, sugar and tobacco plantations, and a steamship called the Bulusan. During the Revolution of 1896, the couple provided financial support to the Katipunan and donated the Bulusan. It became the first warship of the Katipunan. Both their houses were opened to revolutionary officers. Eulalio was imprisoned and eventually died in 1898. The widowed Gliceria continued her patriotic activities.

In 1897, Spanish brigade led by General Jamarillo took over the wedding gift house while the Villavicencio family was allowed to stay in the ancestral house. General Jamarillo occupied the upper floor while his army camped below. This set up allowed Gliceria to eavesdrop about the plans of the enemy and report it to the Filipino revolutionaries stationed in Calaca.

On June 2, 1898, the Spaniards surrendered. The wedding house was opened to the victorious Filipinos. The flag sewn by Gliceria’s town mate Marcela Agoncillo was unfurled for the first time in Taal from wedding gift house.

A formal arrangement of traditional furniture presides over the sala. Although most of the antique style furniture and painted wall decorations were new additions, they recreate the time when Gliceria would insist on the strict etiquette on the house.

There were stories that when American soldiers went to the house, Gliceria ordered them to take of their hats off as a sign of respect to its owner.

 Like most bahay-na-bato, the wedding gift house has two bedrooms. A four-poster bed was the common furniture. A mesa altar appraised to a million peso serves as a stand to a ornate retablo with an antique image of the Virgin.

It was perhaps in one of this bedrooms when Gliceria was roused from her siesta one day. The noise was from the American soldiers who were dancing in the sala with their hats on. Upon seeing the enraged matriach, the 18 American soldiers immediately stormed out of the house.

During the American occupation, the wedding house became a hospital for American soldiers. It survived World War II and natural calamities. Its restoration took place in 2002.  

Beautifully preserved, the historic Villavicencio wedding gift house is a lifesytle museum and open for bed-and-breakfast.

Villavicencio House of Taal

 

There are two ancestral houses in Taal that were dedicated to patriotic couple Don Eulalio Villavicencio and Doña Gliceria Marella de Villavicencio. The older one is a pre-1850 bahay-na-bato referred to as Casa Villavicencio. The adjoining house is called the Villavicencio Wedding Gift  House because it was built as a gift to Doña Gliceria from Don Eulalio on their nuptials.

Both ancestral houses have been restored to become habitable and as private dwellings. However, we owe it to Gliceria’s and Eulalio’s descendants that at this age where the past are sometimes forgotten, they are allowing the public to experience history and the old world charm of Taal through these ancestral houses.

Casa Villavicencio is one of the oldest ancestral houses in the country that still has its original decorations. As we climbed up the wooden stairs to view the living quarters on the second floor, we immediately noticed the original tin ceiling and art nouveau murals in the antesala. In the olden days, metal sheets with embossed designs covering the ceiling became fashionable.

It is perhaps in the antesala where Katipuneros who disguised themselves as sabungeros or as merchants conferred with the house matriarch –Doña Gliceria or as she was fondly called, Aling Eriang.

Casa Villavicencio belongs to the same league of the ancestral houses in Taal where its original owners took an active role in the revolution against the Spanish rule and as a place where important activities were held regarding the revolution.

While Don Eulalio was known to have donated substantial amount of money to finance the printing of Jose Rizal’s novels and by-laws of the La Liga Filipina, Doña Gliceria provided financial aid to the Katipunan. Portraits of the patriotic couple by Juan Luna hang on the main sala.

Found all over the sala are bentwood chairs and tables referred in the olden days as Vienna because they were imported from Austria. The elegance of bentwood furniture matches the sinuousness of the art nouveau flowers and boarders on the walls attributed to artist Emilio Alvero.

In one corner of the sala, a pair of durungawan or high chairs are set by the huge window. This spot might have given Aling Eriang a commanding view of her ships anchored in Balayan Bay. She donated one of her merchant ships to the revolutionary movement. This became the first warship of the Katipunan, which was named the Bulusan. The Bulusan ferried revolutionary troops to different parts of the country and carried the arms and ammunitions from Hong Kong.

A double door in the sala opens to a bedroom that has a kamagong reproduction of the famous Ah-Tay bed. This status symbol was also called calabasa bed because of the squash-shaped design on the bedpost. A bigger bedroom has a four-poster bed, an art nouveau tocador, and aparador, more bentwood chairs, and a huge door that leads back to the antesala. A portal in the antesala leads to the dining room and the kitchen.

The kitchen has been recreated to look like a busy cocina of the olden days complete with a bulbous pugon and a collection of black earthen palayok.

The dining room has an extra-long dining table and an informal comedor for everyday dining. In a secret room below the dining room, revolutionary leaders like Andres Bonifacio, Miguel Malvar, Vito Belarmino, and Felipe Calderon have plotted strategies and made important decisions regarding the revolution. Arms and ammunitions for the Katipunan were also distributed in this secret chamber as well as coded letters from Katipunan leaders. All these activities were never discovered by the Spanish authorities who occupied the nearby and adjoining houses.

For all of her patriotic deeds, Aling Eriang was given the honor as the General Sponsor of the Revolutionary Forces of 1896 by General Emilio Aguinaldo during the proclamation of Philippine Independence in 1898.

-National Heroes Day 2012

Manny Inumerable’s Vintage Camera Museum

For collector and entrepreneur Manny Inumerable, a collection, to be meaningful should be shared to other people this is the reason why he put up Galleria Taal in an ancestral house he has painstakingly restored to house his extensive collection of rare vintage cameras. A first of its kind in the country, this museum is set in the heritage town of Taal. Here’s our interview with Manny Inumerable: 

TOF: What got you started in collecting vintage cameras? Describe the first camera you had for your collection?

Manny: I wanted to know how the camera works so I started tinkering with old cameras. I bought old non working cameras and started tinkering with it and making it work again. I got fascinated with the cameras as I bought more and more old cameras. I started with old Nikon and Canon cameras. Soon I had a collection.

TOF: Recently you traveled to France for the Nikon Historical Convention in Paris. What were the highlights of your trip to the country known as the birthplace of photography?

Manny: Meeting for the first time the Nikon Historical Society members was a great experience for me. I think I was the first Filipino to join their group. I met Bob Rotoloni, the president and founder of the NHS, and other distinguish members Cristopher Sap and Uli Koch who have written books about the early Nikon cameras. However the highlight of my trip to France was attending the Bievres Photo Fair.  This is like a flea market of antique cameras some dating back to the birth of photography around 1840’s to the 1990’s. It is better than going to any other camera museums in the world. Here you see, touch and operate the antique cameras and if you had the money you can buy them. I bought 4 vintage cameras and that made my trip to France worthwhile.

 

TOF: Collectors have this term called “tuition fee.”It’s a kind of inherent price that beginners (for limited knowledge and little experience in collecting) pay while in the process of getting familiar with the things that they are collecting. Usually the tuition fee is experienced by beginners when buying, bidding, trading or swapping collectibles. Please describe your “tuition fee.” What is the price to possess such vintage pieces? Did it come to a point when you overspent for a particular item? 

Manny: A collection is not made overnight, especially a vintage camera collection. It takes years and sometimes a lifetime.  You cannot be an impulsive buyer otherwise you might get burn.  You go thru a process of learning like where to buy, what to buy, which cameras are highly collectibles which are not, what is the right or ideal price for a certain piece and so on.  You have to be very careful not to go over your budget.  You have to get information of the world market prices for vintage cameras. Buy the Mckeown’s book of cameras.  This is the bible of camera collectors. It lists more than 40,000 cameras, its history and market price.

TOF: Where do you get the items that become part of your collection? Can you describe the feeling you get when bringing home something that is sought after by other collectors?

Manny: I get them everywhere. From friends, collectors, sellers in classified ads, flea markets here and abroad, antique stores, ebay auctions, auction houses, etc.

To acquire something that is rare is like owning a treasure.  But it gives me more meaning as a collector if I can share this to other people for them to see and appreciate.  This is why I made Galleria Taal , where I can show this to other people so that they may learn from what I learned.

TOF: As a collector, do you collect for pleasure or for investment?

Manny: Both.  I find pleasure in buying old vintage cameras, restoring them, making them work and using them to take photos like the old days.  When I started the collection I never thought about this being an investment venture, but I realize that the prices of these antique camera are getting higher thru the years. So now it has become an investment and maybe a business venture in the future.

 

TOF: To date, how extensive is your collection? What is your most favorite piece?

Manny: I have in my log book about 170 cameras.  My favorite is the 8×10 Century Studio Camera (c1900) which is the center piece and the biggest camera in the collection at Galleria Taal.

TOF: With over a hundred items on display at Galleria Taal, what else do you want to have? Is the collection finished? Do you think collecting vintage camera as an addiction for you? When do you think you will stop collecting?

Manny: When I first thought about having a camera museum, I thought about having it in Manila in a mall or in a historic place like Intramuros. But I did not have the resources to rent a place for my museum so I thought about our ancestral house in Taal and make it into a camera museum and a photo gallery of Philippine antiquarian photographs. This was March 2010 when we first opened Galleria Taal and now people are going to Taal just to see the camera museum.

I would want to be able to air-conditioned the house to protect the cameras from humidity and for the visitors to be comfortable in viewing the cameras.  Maybe in the future I would want a camera museum in Manila.  There are more cameras in my house that are just waiting to be displayed but cannot be accommodated in Galleria Taal.   When will I stop, I don’t know, maybe when I’m dead.

TOF: As a veteran collector, what is the most important lesson you’ve learned? What tips can you share to those who are starting their own collection, not necessarily vintage cameras but becoming a collector of tangible things, in general?

Manny: For me, a collection, to be meaningful, should be shared to other people.  If you keep it to yourself then you deprive yourself the respect you can gain from your passion and the knowledge other people could acquire from your collections.

TOF: If you’re not collecting vintage cameras, what are you collecting?

Manny: When I was a young boy I collected stamps and old coins. I still have those collections. I like old things like vintage radios and phonographs but I don’t have a collection of those yet.  I really cannot say if I will start another collection.

TOF: What made you decide to open your vintage camera collection to the public?

Manny: I first opened my camera collection to the public when I became the chairman of Photoworld Asia, a trade exhibition in Glorietta, in January 2010. I wanted something knew and different in the exhibitions aside from the normal photo exhibits that are displayed during the event.  It became a hit during the one week exhibition with many visitors seeing the collection.  After that I thought about displaying it permanently in a museum. But since there was no camera museum in the country so I decided to make one.

TOF:  Who influenced you to put up this vintage camera and photography museum?  

Manny: This was purely my own initiative but I got a lot of help from photo collectors who allowed me to use their collection of antiquarian photos to be displayed like John Silva, John Terrell, and Sonny Camarillo.

TOF: The vintage camera and photography museum is housed in the Ilagan-Barrion ancestral house. Please tell us a something about the house. How are you related to the original owners of the house? What are the challenges in restoring and maintaining an ancestral house?

Manny: The Ilagan -Barrion house was built circa 1870 by my great grand parents,  Domingo Ilagan and Maria Martinez (who both died in 1903).  They had six children but  Candida, my grandmother, paid off her siblings to gain sole ownership. Candida who married Antonino Barrion, a lawyer and a delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention representing the 3^rd district of Batangas, had three daughters, Nellie B. Inumerable, Corazon B. Rodriquez and Charito B. Ahorro. They moved to this house in 1944 after their conjugal home in Batangas City was burned down during the Japanese occupation.  Candida lived in this beautiful house and was their home until she passed away in 1975.  The house had been totally neglected for several years after her death. It deteriorated very badly thru the years and became an eye sore in its neighborhood of old houses in Taal.

In 2004, I initiated the restoration of the house with the help of my brother Bobby Inumerable. The ceiling of the entire house was replaced with new ceiling boards and extensive roof repairs were done to prevent water leaks.  All the existing paint was scraped from the wooden walls and windows. New capiz shells for the sliding windows were purchased to replace the old ones. Half of the stair ballusters were missing and had to be replaced. Main wooden girders that supported the floor were replaced due to termite infestations. The toilets and kitchen that were installed later by the occupants of the house were removed.

For more than a year, my brother and I would go almost every week to Taal to supervised the restoration until our limited resources ran out.  By the end of 2005, the house was 90% restored but for the next 5 year it was unoccupied except for a caretaker to clean the house. In March 2010, it became an exhibition venue for photography and the arts named as Galleria Taal.

TOF: Galleria Taal is the first vintage camera museum in the country. What else can we expect from Galleria Taal in the future?

Manny: We shall continue improving the place and the display cabinets.  The cameras will change from time to time, new pieces will be displayed. More literature write ups about camera history will be put up.  We plan to put up a coffee area where visitors can rest and have coffee and merienda and even lunch.  Right now we cater to groups who would like to have lunch in Galleria Taal by appointment.  We also have now a souvenir shop where we sell souvenirs of Galleria Taal. If you want to see the museum you can check our website at www.galleriataal.com and make your appointments for dining or visiting our museum.

-Feast of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel 2012

Marcela Agoncillo House

Visiting ancestral houses links us with our cultural and historical legacy. In Taal Batangas, the centuries-old ancestral houses in what has been declared a Heritage Town were not just indicators of landed wealth but also reminders of the active role that its prominent residents took in the struggle for Philippine Independence. 

The 17^th century Agoncillo House is believed to be one of the oldest in town. Now a museum, the Agoncillo House is a historical landmark dedicated to the making of the Philippine flag. 

Built by Andres Mariño, the house later became home to first Filipino diplomat Felipe Agoncillo and wife Marcela Mariño Agoncillo, seamstress of the Philippine flag. Following the demise of the oldest living children of Felipe and Marcela; Gregoria and Marcela (named after her mother), the ancestral house was donated to the National Historical Commission. 

There are those who say that the flag was actually made in the house on M.N. Agoncillo St. After all, the first thing that visitor would see upon entering the house is a marble and cement sculpture depicting the sewing of the flag. 

But what we’ve learned in school is that the flag was designed by General Emilio Aguinaldo while in exile in Hong Kong.  Aguinaldo went to see the Agoncillos where the family resided also in exile, at 535 Morrison Hill, Hong Kong, and requested Doña Marcela to sew the flag he designed. With the help from her daughter Lorenza and Delfina Herbosa de Natividad, niece of Dr. Jose Rizal, the flag was finished in five days and was hand carried by Aguinaldo on his return to the Philippines. 

Like most houses built during Spanish colonial period, the main living quarters of the Agoncillo house was on the second floor. The ground floor space was usually intended as parking area for the carruaje and storage for supplies and grains. 

In the olden days, tenant-farmers were only allowed in the lower levels of the house where they were usually seen seated on the capiya while waiting instructions from their landlord who held office at the despacho in the entresuelo.    

In the Agoncillo House, the entresuelo is an elevated room beside the main staircase. It now contains the library where antique books are displayed. Impressive were the colorful stained glass used on the window shutters instead of the usual capiz panels. The ornate grill-work also provides a sense of nostalgia when viewing the street while sitting by the windowsill.  

We learned that the main rooms of the house still have the original wooden floorboards where an arrangement of antique furniture style known as Luis Quince and Carlos Trese, are mixed with Viennese bentwood pieces. 

Flanking the huge framed-mirror in the sala are double-doors leading to the two adjoining bedrooms. One has been converted into an oratorio or prayer room. The main bedroom has a four-poster Ah-Tay bed, which was considered a status symbol during that time. 

The dining room can be accessed through a small door by the prayer room. However, it can also be viewed from a window opening from the the ante-sala. To the left of the ante-sala is a room leading to the kitchen where assorted kitchenware are displayed. 

Visitors exit back to the main entrance and are encouraged by museum staff to go to the garden located at the side of the house where a bronze statue by Florante Caedo depicting a heroic Marcela holding up the flag she has made in time for the declaration of Philippine Independence on June 12, 1898. 

12 June 2012 | Independence Day