MUSEUMS FASCINATE ME, and some day, I hope to pass on the
fascination to my children – Paul & Phoebe. So whether it’s a museum set in
a foreign land or the ones we have here in the Philippines – big, small,
famous, or relatively unknown – I’d love to visit it when I have the time.
Late October, my family and I visited one such museum – Cebu
City’s Museo Sugbo. I was hoping to bring the husband and the two kids to
Gorordo Museum because the place left quite an impression on me when I had the
chance to tour it back in high school. But when I begun doing my research, if
we could visit on a Saturday morning, I serendipitously clicked on Museo
Sugbo’s website, and to my delight, it was open on a Saturday!
Museo Sugbo is located along M. J. Cuenco Avenue, in one of
the oldest parts of Cebu we call today as Tejero. It is a corner away from
other famous Cebu landmarks, Fort San Pedro and Plaza Independencia.
It is a breath of fresh air, once you enter it, anyway.
Well, “antiques” – old things – fascinate me, too, and upon entrance, I was transported
to another time, another place.
The reverie was short-lived, though, as the museum’s
“snappy” guard immediately made us sign their visitor’s logbook, after he
warmly greeted us a “maayong buntag”.
We went there on a Saturday morning and, at the time, the
museum was having an “open house” so we didn’t get to pay the usual entrance
fee of P30 for adults and P10 for children and senior citizens.
The museum does not have an in-house tour guide. The foreigners
we saw touring with us brought their own tour guides. The guard simply directed
us to the first door to his right and that was how we toured the place – on our
own, slowly taking our time.
Museo Sugbo houses artifacts from the pre-Christian era to
the Spanish time to when we were colonized by both the Japanese and Americans;
but what caught my fancy were the numerous “olden” newspapers they had on
display.
Wow! Journalism was already alive in this part of the
country during the Spanish, Japanese and American times. There were so many! There
was the – Philippine Press, The Cebu Times, The Manila Chronicle Noon Edition,
Ang Suga, Union, Visayan Shinbun, Nueva Fuerza, and Ang Freeman – could this be
today’s The Freeman, I wonder.
These were all housed towards the front portions of the
museum. As you go deeper, the displays become more “new” and modern. There were
rooms dedicated to famous families in Cebu – popular then and popular today –
because they are said to be the “pioneering families” that brought Cebu to
where it is now – The Queen City of the South. These were the Ramas, the
Osmenas, the Garcias, and so many more.
Each family had a specific contribution to Cebu’s history in
different aspects – culture, economics, politics, etc. It was super
interesting.
I would have wanted to stay longer in these rooms but the kids
were already dragging me to another room draped in dark curtains. When we were
inside, I realized why the room was “weirdly” cold and dark (because of the
dark curtains, again) and it was because this room with a high ceiling and poor
lighting housed “architectural designs” – the paper versions – of Cebu’s old
churches, old bridges, old structures, and just about any building that needed
to be drawn before it was built in the last century!
Our architects today use computers, 3D models, but what they
had then was just their knowledge in math, their hands and fingers, their crude
rulers, yet they drew and built some of the most beautiful and longer-lasting
structures we now call today as “historical” places.
Yes, it was a sight to behold and it got me thinking. How I
wish I were an architect! This would have been more relatable. I do hope though
that Cebu’s architect students would come and see for themselves these “olden”
architectural designs. Maybe they’ll be able to pick up a few “drawing”
techniques here and there. Who knows?!
That was the final room we visited. It was time to go out
and survey the surroundings. It was then that we found a “wishing well” called
“The Well of Wisdom, Love and Good Fortune”. In Cebuano, “Ang Atabay sa
Kinaadman, Gugma ug Maayong Kapalaran”.
My kids enjoyed the wishing well and they actually threw
coins and wished twice. Per the guide we bumped into, who was touring some
Japanese tourists at the time, the well used to be quite functional. It was
where the prisoners of the once “Karsel sa Sugbo” and eventually, the Cebu
Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), got their water for
drinking, washing clothes and dishes, and bathing.
Yes, Museo Sugbo was once a “prison”. It was designed by
Domingo De Escondrillas to serve as Cebu’s prison house sometime in the 1870s. It
became the Cebu Provincial Jail during the American colonization, which was
also when the second floor was constructed; Cebu City Jail from 1946-1976; and
CPDRC from 1976 up to 2004.
In 2004, CPDRC was transferred to a bigger facility in Brgy.
Kalunasan, Cebu City; and it was in 2008 that Museo Sugbo came to be. What a
wonderful history!
So, when in Cebu, make it a point to not only eat and shop, and
in our case, religiously complete our annual check-ups, but to also visit a museum
or two.
My children had a blast, even if at the start of our trip,
they were saying that “museums were boring”. Your kids will have fun, too, and
so will you.
