XV. A Vigan Akyat-Bahay Vacation, Part Three: The Quema House.

On our self-guided walking tour, we meet several more examples of the “standard,” almost cookie-cutter, Vigan house.

But occasionally, one wants to be a bit different. This next one, now a commercial establishment, has a two-toned color scheme and “pregnant” ventanillas (lower window openings) on the second floor. But apparently there’s no getting away from arched windows and doorways on the ground floor and outside-sliding capiz panels on the second floor.

And here’s one that tries to hard to look like an arcade, but is still recognizable, like if you or me were to wear a Groucho Marx moustache-and-glasses:

Here’s a tasteful restoration that conforms to the expectations of the broadest group of people, complete with wooden wheels in an archway and deliberately exposed brickwork on the facade:

The paletada (plastering) of this next one conceals the bricks by trying to appear like adobe blocks. Not very effective, I fear.

And here’s a very freshly renovated super-standard Vigan House – you can almost smell the white paint drying:

Its gate is not strictly authentic, but is a period-respectful wrought-iron-and-wood fabrication:

Just adjacent to this house, across a secondary road, is this slightly non-standard structure, which looks much older than all the others due to its weathered exterior and its uninterrupted row of capiz window panels. 

This is the illustrious Quema House, built in the first half of the nineteenth century. Its main entrance is through the tall double doors at the right side of the photo above, directly behind the white motor vehicle. The caretaker-family was extremely hospitable and accommodating, no doubt contributing to this house’s popularity as an akyat-bahay destination. Moreover, this house has been extensively featured and referenced in many books about Filipino heritage, including Philippine Ancestral Houses by Zialcita and Tinio, Filipino Style by Tettoni at al, and Household Antiques and Heirlooms by Sta. Maria et al, amongst many others. 

Despite the hospitality of the residents, this still meant that one had to make his or her own way up the Vigan-typical steep main staircase, making it safer to photograph from the top of the staircase, after one had successfully completed an ascension, and which allows one to admire the finely turned and fluted balusters:

At the top of staircase, within a wall niche in the antesala, one finds a magnificent bookcase with a carved crown and a wooden latticework grid that holds the glass front in place. As glass had to be imported in the 19^th century and was therefore extremely rare, this was one expensive bookcase. Thus, only valuable leather-bound volumes ought to be kept inside – keep those pocketbooks far away: 

The rest of the antesala is fairly typical 19^th century Vigan – well-furnished and dark. But at least we can admire the balustrade some more: 

The sala is entered from the antesala via these wide double doors in the foreground:

The sala itself is even more richly furnished than the antesala. It features suites of bentwood furniture with rattan upholstery and carved picture frames on the walls. 

From the sala, one enters two bedrooms on either side. Each bedroom is entered via narrower but still pretty generously-sized double doors:

The bedrooms contain the usual bedroom furniture – obviously beds, but also aparadors. Here’s one, perhaps from the late 19^th to the early 20^th century, and therefore much “younger” than the house, relatively-speaking:

However, there’s another aparador in the bedroom on the other side of the sala. This one is closer to the house’s actual age – a real beauty in kamagong (Philippine ebony) with inlaid decorations on the crown in light-colored lanete wood.  

It’s not very tall, perhaps just five and a half feet or so, but its neoclassical design and fine proportions make this a much-copied original amongst furniture makers in the Philippines. It must be so valuable than even newly-made copies go for way in excess of P100,000 each.

Even in the mid-afternoon sun, much of the Quema house was in darkness which even my camera’s flash had to fight valiantly to overcome. At the risk of further underexposure (not to mention accidents), I proceeded to the dining room and kitchen areas, where I took one last photo. This is the house’s wallful of a combination platera / vajillera / botica cabinet.

It creatively incorporates a door into its design – perhaps leading to a small bodega or pantry – I’m not sure which.

Going down those steep stairs and taking a shot with other visitors descending rather than ascending gives us another opportunity to admire it safely:

And allows us to take a breather before we visit another non-standard, book-referenced Vigan house, this time with historical connections.

 

Originally published on 10 November 2006.  All text and photos copyright ©2006 by Leo D Cloma. The moral right of Leo D Cloma to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.

Original comments:

itchywitch wrote on Oct 6, '08 I love the Quema house. My 1st time there was in the 90's... they had an antique refrigerator, the one you put ice blocks and salt in.. if you go down the old kitchen staircase to the garden, you'll find a room with bats.. somewhere in the garage there used to be a coffin too. really interesting and authentic vigan house. it underwent a recent renovation though.. haven't seen it recently..i hope it's still as I remember it.

rally65 wrote on Oct 6, '08 itchywitch said I love the Quema house. My 1st time there was in the 90's... they had an antique refrigerator, the one you put ice blocks and salt in.. if you go down the old kitchen staircase to the garden, you'll find a room with bats.. somewhere in the garage there used to be a coffin too. really interesting and authentic vigan house. it underwent a recent renovation though.. haven't seen it recently..i hope it's still as I remember it. Too bad I didn't get to check out the antique refrigerator or the room with bats. But what was that coffin in the garage for? On standby in case of a "funeral emergency"? Ha ha. We must go back and check this out, post-restoration.

arcastro57 wrote on Oct 6, '08 I remember this house and its contents--especially that bibelot--from the book, Household Antiques and Heirlooms. Nice to see it still is in very good condition..

ususera wrote on Oct 6, '08 I love the Quema house too. More than 200 years of glorious existence. Grabe. This is a great site, btw!

kookaikookai wrote on Dec 9, '09 Thank you for sharing! :)

XIV. A Vigan Akyat-Bahay Vacation, Part Two: The Crisologo House-Museum.

As it was my first time ever in Vigan, I spent the first day walking the streets of the old district, just to soak in the “ambience,” whatever that means. After checking in at Villa Angela that early morning, having a typical Vigan longganisa breakfast (yum!), and doing the usual number two (I’m regular, like clockwork) in the spartan (to be polite about it) shared toilet facilities, I went down to the zaguan, got out via the main door on V. de los Reyes Street, and walked in the direction of the town center. Along the way, I saw houses such as this one:

and this: 

Even at this early stage in this self-guided tour, one will notice that Vigan houses are unusually “uniform,” i.e., they share a number of characteristics that make them appear like they were all constructed by the same small group of “architects” (or their equivalent one hundred fifty or so or more years ago) and builders. The two photos above enable us to identify a few of the more obvious ones: (1) brick walls faced with plaster, (2) simple arched ground floor windows and doorways with keystones, and (3) second floor sliding capiz windows hung from outside the walls. This last feature is particularly interesting, as in just about everywhere else in the Philippines, capiz windows are installed to slide inside the house, not outside. I’ve not yet heard of an explanation for why windows in Vigan houses are so – I would particularly be worried about the increased risk of sun and rain damage to the window panels. Anyone care to venture any theories?

Here’s another house that I passed by that has undergone some prudent replastering and whitewashing, such that one can no longer see the bricks that make up the walls. 

Another obvious Vigan old house characteristic is that they are true “bahay-na-bato,” i.e., both ground and second floors have walls of stone (actually brick), unlike in most other parts of the Philippines where only the ground floor walls are of stone (usually adobe [volcanic tuff], where locally available) or brick, and the second floor walls are of wood. Of course, the actual floor of the second floor and the ceilings of both floors are of wood, as we will see throughout this visit.

The next house we passed seems to have just undergone a major renovation, which tastefully retained all the original features of Vigan houses and gave the entire structure a simple all-white paint job. Could this be how the typical Vigan house looked like when they were newly-constructed one and a half to two centuries or more ago? 

Before we all hastily answer, “yes,” we ought to be reminded that a few people, even some old Vigan residents, have theorized that in fact Vigan houses were originally painted in bright colors, much like, for example, the Victorian-era “Painted Ladies” of San Francisco, California. I am not aware of the evidence for or against this or the opposing “all-white Vigan houses” hypotheses, so again, if anyone out there has any empirical data that may help settle this debate, I’d appreciate hearing more about it. 

Moving closer to this last house, we walk up to the main door, and learn that it has a name: Casa Caridad, built in 1872.   

I’m guessing that, just like “Villa Angela,” this is a recently-applied monicker, as Filipino ancestral houses, unlike many Western examples, did not originally have names. And even “Villa Angela” and “Casa Caridad” sound so tame and bland compared to, say, “Wuthering Heights,” or “Thrushcross Grange,” to take just two literary examples. How would you name your own house, if you had the opportunity (and the gumption) to do so?

Our first real akyat-bahay stop was the Crisologo House, now a museum that houses the mementoes and personal collections of the members of the eponymous Ilocano political family. The zaguan contains, among other things, a horse-drawn passenger carriage.

Going up to the second floor, one is welcomed by a wide balustraded staircase, above which hangs what appears to be a print of Christ with a Holy Woman – possibly Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus, or Mary Magdalene, or the Samaritan Woman. And on your way down, you will be prudently asked by the hand-printed sign in the very center of this next photo to “Please be careful – stairs are slippery.” 

Actually it’s not so much that they are slippery that makes it slightly unsafe to go up and down these Vigan house staircases. Rather, it’s that they are all so steep – like going up near-vertical ladders really. Exacerbating the problem is that they also have very shallow treads – a real problem for people with large feet like me. (And you remember what they say about people with large feet – that they also have big…shoes.) I guess 18^th and 19^th century Bigueños (that’s what they’re supposed to be called) liked climbing a lot and had tiny feet besides.

The Crisologo living room is entered via these wide, though a bit short, double doors. I don’t know if this puka-shell-curtain-like doorway decoration is period-authentic, but there it is:

An impressively tall Venetian mirror occupies a prominent place in the sala. 

And by the window stands a life-sized antique processional image of the Crisologo family’s patron saint, San Vicente Ferrer, complete with metal wings. 

As Saint Vincent Ferrer is also one of my name-saints, I can clarify that this Spanish Dominican friar (ca. 1350 – 1419) didn’t actually go around with wings when he was alive, or got transformed into an angel at some stage – the wings in devotional images of him are a metaphor for his observed ability to move quickly from place to place to preach and work miracles. 

The same puka-shell-curtain-like decorations are hung from the doorway of the master bedroom: 

This “public” dining room must have been used to receive and feed groups of political supporters and other “hangers-on.”

I like the fact that the Crisologo Museum staff (our guide was an old lady who said that she had been in the employ of the family since her youth) were so considerate as to label everything clearly for the naïve and clueless visitor. I mean, I wouldn’t have guessed what this was in a million years, had I not seen the label: 

And they must have forgotten to label these unidentified objects (or maybe I just failed to include the labels in the shots):

This series of Vigan old-house tours hasn’t even gotten really interesting yet. Next, we continue walking the streets of the old district, and visit an iconic “book-referenced” Vigan house.

Originally published on 2 November 2006.  All text and photos copyright ©2006 by Leo D Cloma. The moral right of Leo D Cloma to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.

Original comments:

3 Comments

apacpaco wrote on Nov 4, '07 Hi - I love your site. You see a lot of pictures of Vigan from the outside but not usually from inside. Nice. I would like to give you an insight on the "all-white Vigan houses" vs. the bright color theory. I grew up in Vigan. In the 70s, Imelda Marcos embarked on a project, i.e., she had all the colonial homes in Vigan painted white. To her credit, she saw the tourism potential of Vigan. And as someone who has traveled all over the world,it is believed that she attempted to copy one of the all white colonial towns in Spain. The truth is that before Vigan's houses became all-white, they were all painted in pastel colors much like the colonial homes one would find in colonial Mexico. If you look at the Spanish colonial history of the Philippines, you will note that there was a lot of trade between the Philippines and Mexico through Spain. In fact, Mexicans migrated to the Philippines and vice versa. Hence the Mexican influence on Vigan homes - except for the windows of course which is truly Filipino. I have been to Mexico several times - there are "some" colonial towns in Mexico that reminds me so much of Vigan. By the way, Casa Caridad is owned by Bonito Singson who is the brother of Chavit. Caridad is the name of Chavit's late mother. A few years ago, Bonito bought the house from our neighbor who was married to the original owner of the house who was Chinese (Ong). FPJ Jr used the house in some of his films pre-restoration. One of the houses featured in your column (in front of the Quema house) is now owned by Ronald Singson whom as you know is Chavit's son. The house used to be owned by an old Vigan family. I will not even touch this. But YES, Vigan houses used to be pastel-colored. You should explore more homes.

rally65 wrote on Nov 4, '07 Thanks for your information, Paco. That's very interesting and helpful! I have lots more Akyat-Bahay stories waiting to be written, but sadly my day-job gets in the way. Ha ha ha. Hopefully I can write at least a couple more before Christmas.

antigualla wrote on Feb 19, '09 Hi Leo. The framed religious lithograph on canvass over the grand stair case is actually that of Our Lord and St. John the Evangelist, who ffrom a distance could easily be mistaken for a woman, because of his youthful looks and attendant long hair. It is a commemorative issue in 1933, to commemorate the 33rd International Eucharistic Congress, held in Manila in the same year. I have one of those myself. Regards

XIII. A Vigan Akyat-Bahay Vacation, Part One: Villa Angela

About three years ago, I did the unthinkable and took a break from work. Yep, I actually filed for vacation leave, got my boss to approve it, took a four-day vacation, and left town. Actually, that’s a bit misleading – Thursday, June 12^th, 2003 was Independence Day, a holiday anyway, and so the only vacation leave that I needed to report was June 13^th, Friday. And of course, I still had Saturday and Sunday free.

I went with a few other people to that ultimate Akyat-Bahay destination, Vigan City in Ilocos Sur. It took us only eight-hours to get there from Manila, as we took an overnight journey, leaving the big city at about 9 pm and getting there at about 5 am the next morning.

As soon as we got there, all we had to do was claim our room reservations at our pre-booked hotel. Actually, it was not your usual hotel at all – instead, it was a genuine 18^th century ancestral house, now converted into an inn. We’re at the Verzosa House, now called Villa Angela.

Villa Angela is unusual because it is bounded by three major streets, all still within Vigan’s old district. In the above photo is V. de los Reyes Street, which runs right in front of the house’s main entrance. At the far right, you can make out another street running perpendicular to the first street; this second street serves as the property’s right-side boundary. And the rear entrance of the house, which is in fact through which guests may enter and park their vehicles, is via another street, parallel to the first one and perpendicular to the second one.

Another unusual thing about Villa Angela is that, unlike most other Vigan houses, it has a wide and relatively grand rear entrance. No doubt this is because it is accessible via a major street. The original builders took advantage of the house’s exceptional location and gave the back door not only a double grand staircase

but also a long and wide driveway and lawn, large enough for carretelas (horse-drawn buggies), with interesting stamped metal designs like those on carrozas, to park and allow their horses to graze and their coachmen to take naps.

While Villa Angela’s front door is pretty standard as far as Vigan houses go (as we will see in succeeding articles), 

its interior is again rather different from that of other Vigan houses – as it is larger and contains more volume, due once again to its larger, well-situated lot. This is evident from the ground-floor zaguan, now converted into two very large bedrooms for shared accommodation by budget travellers. The kitchen and dining room are also on the ground floor. (I didn’t think to take photographs of this ground floor as I thought them rather unremarkable, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.)

Towards the back of the zaguan, near the dining area, is the staircase leading to the second floor. Like all Vigan staircases, it was steep, had small treads, and went up in just one flight, which meant that it felt rather dangerous to ascend it. (Which is why I failed to take a photograph of this as well – a lame excuse.) At the head of the stairs, one emerges into the antesala or hallway, now furnished as a formal dining room.

The staircase is visible at the far right in the photograph below:

Even though it is certain that this room was the original antesala, it has since been convincingly redesigned with dining room furniture.

This hallway-now-dining room leads via an arched pair of double doors to the large living room

now fully furnished in what appear to be good reproduction antique furniture and furnishings.

Another doorway from the hallway-now-formal dining room leads to one large bedroom,

which of course is also accessible from the living room.

On the opposite side of the living room is another bedroom, whose double doors look like this from the inside

and has three beds, one of which is this one, which I promptly assigned to myself

and had an aparador (clothes cabinet)

and a tocador (dresser) besides.  

On the other side of the living room and the (new) dining room is the original kitchen, now really just for show.

The only other room on the second floor that we have not visited is a bedroom, situated in what would have been the original dining room. This is now a “special bedroom” in that it is the only room in this house that is airconditioned, and has an ensuite toilet and bath besides. The house staff now refer to this room as the “Tom Cruise Bedroom,” as the American movie star used it when he was filming “Born on the Fourth of July” in the Ilocos region some years back. So you’re jaded and you say, where are the photos? Well, the room was occupied, therefore I couldn’t take photos, so there.

In the end, the fact that Tom Cruise had airconditioning, while our rooms did not (our group took the remaining two other bedrooms on either side of the living room), proved to be Villa Angela’s undoing for us. We just could not stand the indoor heat that first day – it really felt like Holy Week in June. It didn’t help that the occupants of both bedrooms (as many as six at full occupancy) had to share a grand total of one toilet and one bathroom among them, which one had to go outside across the azotea to access.

By the late afternoon of the first day, our group had decided to seek somewhat cooler and better-appointed lodgings – period authenticity simply lost to modern conveniences. In fact, we moved into a drab modern motel just half a block away – so nondescript that it was too embarrassing to take any photos.

But at least we had airconditioning to go home to at night, and the toilet-and-bath sharing ratio was down to 2:1. These amenities were extremely valuable after all the walking around town and the further akyat-bahay visiting that we did, as we will see next.

Originally published on 24 October 2006.  All text and photos copyright ©2006 by Leo D Cloma. The moral right of Leo D Cloma to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.

Original comments:

4 Comments 

arcastro57 wrote on Oct 25, '06 I wonder if Tom Cruise manage to sleep well on a sulihiya bed.

mike10017 wrote on Oct 28, '06, edited on Oct 28, '06 That room also has the Maruja(remake) tocador. We also stayed there but in the bunk beds in the silong because we were a big group and they didn't allow people sharing the beds baka mabutas ang sulihiya. I don't remember seeing the kitchen though.

peaver wrote on Apr 11, '08 hi! i love your blogs about ancestral houses... perhaps you can visit Bohol and explore our ancestral houses and old churches here and feature them in your blogs. :)

rally65 wrote on Apr 11, '08 I'd really like to visit Bohol, as, among other reasons, my Cloma ancestors are from there. All I need is to make detailed arrangements as to where to stay, what places to visit, etc.