Recreating 22 Spanish colonial houses in Bataan

06/14/2009

Wonder of wonders, Ciudad Real de Acuzar, a new Spanish colonial village, is rising on the shores of the South China Sea in Bagac, Bataan.

Gerry Acuzar painstakingly, plank by plank and tile by tile, has transported original heritage homes from all over Luzon. Transplanting them on 400 hectares of land, 22 structures, so far, have been completed. The Museum Foundation, led by Lisa Periquet, organized the tour of the amazing collection as part of the Filipino Heritage Festival celebration.

A total of 33 heritage conservation-minded adherents were guided through several of the ancestral houses by architect Miguel Manalo, director of the recently established Escuela Taller de Intramuros. The conservation architect received specialized training in his profession on a scholarship in Mexico.

In the former home of the Tolentino family of Baliuag, Bulacan, a lunch of ulang (crayfish) and crabs was served. The artist-in-residence for the entire Ciudad Real, Jose “Ping” Ceriola’s old-timey paintings decorate the Taberna del Señor Pepe.

“This tavern is patterned after Spanish tabernas,” Ceriola explains. “But Mr. Acuzar wanted us to inject some humor in the paintings,” pointing out a half-hidden person busy texting on his cell phone, tucked away in a corner of the tableau of men at their drink.

Ceriola supervises a total of 120 workmen in the village comprising three historical architects, three metal sculptors, 10 wood carvers from Guagua, Pampanga, and two artist-painters.

As hard as they try to replicate the heritage houses to their original state, Ceriola says it is an almost impossible task. In many cases, by the time they purchase the bahay na bato, they are in a state of disrepair — some not so minor.

“On average, they are 50 to 60 percent accurate,” Ceriola says. He adds that their bodega holds the lumber of over 50 more homes, indicating that they intend to keep going beyond the initial structures already in place.

Owner of San Jose Builders and a native of Balanga, Bataan, Acuzar has acquired ancestral houses from Cagayan, La Union, Quezon (Unisan), and Lubao, Candaba and Mexico, all in Pampanga, Baliuag and Meycauayan in Bulacan, and from Manila, two from Binondo, one in Tondo, and a school of fine arts in Quiapo.

The only un-original building is the Escolta Hotel on the “Escolta,” which replicates that Manila street of fine shops from turn-of-the-century photographs. It is almost ready to accept lodgers, only requiring finishing touches to the long, colorful building adorned with sculptures of what could be Roman or Grecian women garbed in flowing robes.

“What’s nice here,” Manalo says, “is that they are all home-grown artists, encouraged to practice their crafts in such a fine setting.”

The stone blocks on the ground-floor sections of the home are still exposed, which could lead to their absorption of salt from the sea air. Perhaps they will all be finished off with palitada, smooth finishing cement, all in one go. Poorer homes at the turn of the century could not afford palitada so they left the stones bare.

Among the more interesting houses are the homes of the Novicios, the Equivels, and the University of the Philippines’ first fine arts school building. Transplanted from Luna, La Union, the Novicio bahay na bato belonged to the family of the mother of the young Katipunero general, Antonio Luna, and his brother, the great painter Juan Luna, both of whom were part of the Indios Bravos group of Jose Rizal in Europe.

Manalo points out the “wrap-around porch,” with capiz shell wide windows on their outer shell — a corridor that wraps the entire second floor — and more wide wooden windows in its inner section. “It’s like a thermos cladding, adjusting to the climate,” the conservation architect says.

Bullet holes are the prime curiosity in the fanciful Esquivel house, once situated in Jaen, Nueva Ecija. Its occupant had been the victim of a rabid assassination attempt sometime in the 1980s. Bullet holes and gashes obviously fired from high-powered guns, slash through the walls of two bedrooms.

Built in the American colonial period in 1910 but still of the architectural bahay na bato design of the Spanish colonial era, is the imposing School of Fine Arts of the American-founded University of the Philippines. Originally situated on R. Hidalgo Street among the Quiapo homes of the Paternos, Zaragozas and Aranetas, across the street from the present MLQ University, it is quite a large building.

A broad two-tiered wooden staircase opens to the upper floor. The large salon is obviously where models posed for several students at their easels, flanked by smaller rooms for more individualized mentoring.

Cutout woodwork adorns many homes’ decorative arches and ceiling corners, with some living rooms and bedrooms furnished, while others await interior furniture.

Wherever one goes indoors, one cannot help appreciate how well-geared for cross-ventilation every structure is, allowing the sea breeze to cool the ancestral homes’ visitors and residents.

Outdoors, cobblestones dominate the entire area, a stone carabao wallows in the pond, and GMA 7 shoot Zorro, their weekly serial. Needless to say, they could not have found a more ideal location for their shoots.

Sponsored by Security Bank Corp., Philippine Airlines and Air Philippines, the tour was held with the support of Expat, Yehey.com and PinoyHenyo.com. For more information, call 892-5865, or log on to http://filheritagefest.fateback.com.

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