AdventuRoj Visits Yap-San Diego Ancestral House

Yap San Diego Ancestral House

The Yap-Sandiego Ancestral House is located at 155-Lopez Jaena corner Mabini Street, Parian District in Cebu, Philippines. It is just a few steps away from the Parian Monument which is also known as Heritage of Cebu Monument and meters away from Colon Street, the oldest street in the Philippines. Considered to be one of the oldest residential houses in the Philippines, the Yap-Sandiego Ancestral House was built sometime between 1675 and 1700. It was originally owned by a Chinese merchant named Don Juan Yap and his wife, Doña Maria Florido. They had 3 children, namely, Maria, Eleuterio, and Consolacion Yap.

The Story Behind

The house exudes the essence of a bygone era, a time already lived and long forgotten. You can feel it in the creaking of the wooden stairs and floorboards that sigh the burden of the years.

Don and Dona

History

With the Sto Nino. Serious Mode. ahem.

You can see it in the second floor banggera–an extended windowsill that continues to hold a clay jar for storing drinking water and chinaware, and Capiz windows as well as in the intricately carved old furniture and images of saints with their ivory heads and hands.

Fine Dining the Old Way

By the window

The things inside are not nearly as ancient as the structure but some, like the huge mirror in the living room, are over a hundred years old. The mirror that now adorns the second floor wall of the Sandiego ancestral home was used on several occasions by Negros native Pantaleon Villegas, better known as Leon Kilat, who led the revolution against the Spaniards in Cebu in 1898.

Some of the images of saints have missing hands, stolen or sold because these were made of ivory which was how they used to do them back then.