Splash of Yellow: Old Filipino House during the Spanish Era

I like visiting old houses - it's the best way to learn about our history and culture. And although I've been to several old houses, I'm always excited at a prospect of visiting a new one.

One of my cousins (we don't know what degree but we just know we're cousins since we were in our teens! haha...) came home this Christmas season from the States to spend the holidays here and attend their annual family reunion which happens just before the New Year. Every year, they hold it in his great grandparents' ancestral house.

I have never remembered visiting their ancestral house so he volunteered to tour us around. My nephew and nieces came along armed with cameras so the photos I'll share here are a compilation of the photos we took.

As trivia, the caretaker shared with us that the house was used in several movie and teleserye shoots, the last one was a Star Cinema movie. It's funny how my cousin discovered this - he said one day while in their US home, a family member bought a DVD of a Filipino film and as they were watching the movie, the house just looked familiar. It was their great grandparents' ancestral house! Haha...

Anyway, once you enter the property, you know that it used to be one grand place as he points to us the spot where a fountain used to be. Of course, this fountain used to be elevated but is now at ground level as soil has been dumped into the grounds over the years.

Beautiful water lilies thrive in the water.

This is the facade of the old house as you enter the gate. This probably only represents one-fourth of the house's length.

This is how one side of the house looks like. It has an azutea, typical of old Filipino houses during the Spanish times. See the red gate? That's where the horse carriages used to be parked.

Check out the antique windows...

As you go up the concrete steps at the main entrance, you'll notice a mural on the walls of the porch. They are paintings of farmers and ricefields which was the family's livelihood during the Spanish era. The family hired an artist to try to reconstruct the original mural painted on these walls.

This is the grand staircase leading to the living room. It's made of solid narra wood.

This is the living room. The place has yet to be prepped up in the coming days in time for the family's upcoming reunion.

There are a lot of wood carvings and details in various sections of the house. Above the ceiling once you enter the living room, you'll see the intricately wood carving of the family crest.

In one of the walls of the living room proudly hangs the family tree.

We traced how we became cousins. I think we found it in one of the twigs. His grandmother and my grandfather were siblings. So that makes us second cousins.

There's also an antique piano in the living room. It may be out of tune but it still plays beautiful sound.

There are several artworks which hang in the living room that includes fine embroidery. This is the work of one of the second generation (grand-aunts) of the house. Can you believe this was made in 1921?!

Crocheted table runner, antique lampshade, sunlight entering the capiz windows create a nostalgic feel.

When you look up the ceiling, you'll find antique lights and beautiful paintings on the ceiling like this.

Here's one portion of the kitchen where they used to prepare food.

And an antique stove!

Look at how intricate the stove door is.

Antique claypots and cookware.

Old-style electrical switch.

Old-style keyhole.

Banggera.

Look at the details of another banggera in the kitchen. There's a carving at corner and the wooden slats are in varying lengths. In the olden times, it's usually in the banggera where they dry the plates and utensils.

A water jar made of clay. When you put water into this vessel, the water stays naturally cool. I hope they revive this type of water vessel. It would be nice to store water at home in this jar instead of the plastic containers from water stations.

An antique gilingan or grinder. It was used to grind grains to make "suman" and "kalamay".

An antique elevator which uses a pulley! How cool is that? And guess what? It's still being used up to this day by an aunt who's turning 80 soon.

A chapel where they hold mass for the family.

While touring around, my nephew discovered a secret panel in the chapel which leads to the adjacent bedroom. It was the first time my cousin has seen it too! Check this out.

Each bedroom has a sink with nice antique faucets like this.

An antique dressing table in one of the bedrooms of the grand-aunts in the house.

An antique solid narra closet. I wonder how all one's "baro at saya" fit into a cabinet like this before?

At the ground floor where the horse carriage garage is, is now an antique carosa (float) that is still being used up to this day during the Holy Week procession.

Here are random items we discovered at the ground floor of the house.

The family is known to have supported a lot of seminarians and the Church so this must have been a vessel to collect donations. There's a Pampanggo inscription which says something like "The Missionary: My help in spreading the faith".