Did you know that October is officially the country’s Museums and Galleries Month? It’s been observed ever since 1991, with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts saying that the month “underscores the importance of arousing national consciousness and pride in our rich Filipino culture and heritage embodying the aspirations of the nation, expressed in all media of art as well as historical and religious artifacts.”

In honor of this observance, De La Salle University-Dasmariñas is holding free admission to its Museo de La Salle every Saturday of the month. The museum, which is open from 9 a.m to 3:30 p.m, is a “lifestyle museum dedicated to the preservation of certain aspects and material culture of the 19th century Philippine ilustrado lifestyle,” according to its website.

Writing for Philippine Daily Inquirer, Jose Ricardo Panlilio, the first executive director of Museo de La Salle, says that the museum takes “inspiration from Filipino bahay na bato architecture and interior design.” It’s specifically molded after three bahay na bato structures: Constantino house in Balagtas, Bulacan; the Sioco-Arnedo house in Bo. Sulipan, Apalit, Pampanga; and his ancestor’s own Santos Joven-Panlilio house in Bacolor, Pampanga.

The museum was designed by “architect Oscar Mapua Jr., anthropologist and historian Dr. Fernando Nakpil Zialcita and heritage architect Augusto Villalon.”

It houses actual heirlooms of ilustrado families: some from the aforementioned Panlilio and Gonzales dynasty, some donated by Doña Marie Theresa “Bebe” de Virata, and so on.

The museum is located in De La Salle University-Dasmariñas’s east campus. For more information on the museum and its free entrance Saturdays, you can check out its website or Facebook page.

Featured photo courtesy of Museo de La Salle’s website

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