Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar

Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar is an open-air museum and heritage park in Bagac, Bataan, Philippines.^[1]

Location

Las Casas Filipinas is located on the sea side, along Umagol river, in Barangay Pag-asa, Bagac, Bataan (Central Luzon, Philippines).

History and description

José "Gerry" Acuzar, owner of New San Jose Builders started to rebuild Spanish mansions in Bagac in 2003.^[2] Each house was dismantled brick by brick, numbered, transported to his property in Bagac, reassembled in the same order, and then restored. Houses were chosen based on their historical, cultural and architectural value. Acuzar bought houses which were in a state of neglect, from the owners, and in some cases also purchased the lot where the mansions stood. The bahay na bato (Tagalog, literally meaning stone houses) which have stone foundations on the first floor and are made of wood on the second floor(constructed thus to withstand earthquakes), were transplanted from Manila (Tondo, Binondo and Quiapo), Quezon City, Bulacan, Pampanga, La Union, the Ilocos and Cagayan.

Seven years later, in 2010, the heritage park was opened to public.

Spread over 400 hectares, the park features a collection of 27 Spanish Colonial buildings and stone houses (bahay na bato in Tagalog), planned to resemble a settlement reminiscent of the period. These houses were carefully dismantled, brick by brick, transplanted from different parts o^[3] of the Philippines and rehabilitated in these premises, to resemble the original structure. For parts that were missing, woodwork and bricks were replicated to resemble the original structure. For this, the Ciudad employs a workforce of 130 people, including 10 wood sculptors, three metal sculptors, 30 craftsmen who design ceilings, and construction workers. There are also five architects, two of whom are historical architects, and two artists

The resort also has a restaurant, a beach, calesa rides and a swimming pool. The resort plans to house 50 such heritage houses.

Heritage houses

Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar contains 30 heritage houses.

• Casa Baliuag 1 (built in 1898; owned by the Vergel de Dios family). The house contains wood carvings with floral motifs. The original owner of Casa Baliwag was Kapitan Fernando Vergel de Dios, then was inherited by his eldest daughter, Juliana VD Reyes. The house was originally situated right across the town's San Agustin church. Family members fondly called it "Luwasan" since it was the house referred to when going towards the town or to Manila. Kapitan Fernando had another house called "Hulo", which was going towards the end of town, or sa "dulo".
• Casa Baliuag 2 was a house originally in the compound of Iglesia ni Cristo in Baliuag. The house was owned by a Gonzalez
• Casa Cagayan is a collection of four wooden houses built on stilts. Such houses were usually regarded as houses of poor people in Cagayan in the early 1900s.
• Casa Candaba (built in 1780, owned by the Reyes family) was home to the Spanish governor general whenever he visited Pampanga.
• Two houses from Jaen, Nueva Ecija, originated from the Esquivel clan.
• Casa Lubao(built in 1920; owned by the Arastia and Vitug families) served as storage for rice and sugar, and became a Japanese garrison during World War II. A story goes that a Japanese colonel stopped his men from burning the house in gratitude for the kindness of the Arastia family who, unknowingly, hired him as a driver and gardener before the war.
• Casa Mexico was salvaged from a junk shop and reconstructed using an old photograph.
• Casa Luna (owned by the Novicio family) now houses a museum. Built in 1850, its original location was in Namacpacan (now Luna town) in La Union. The town was later renamed to honour its revolutionary heroes and brothers Antonio and Juan Luna, whose mother was a member of the Novicio clan.
• Paseo de Escolta used old and new material to recreate commercial buildings in the early 1900s in Manila. With 17 rooms, it houses a hotel within the heritage resort. Its ground floor houses shops.
• Casa Bizantina (built in 1890) is a three-story intricately designed bahay na bato (stone house) from Binondo, Manila. The Instituto de Manila (now the University of Manila) rented it for elementary and high school classes until 1919 when the institute moved to Sampaloc, Manila. After World War II, the building was leased to various tenants. Before it was demolished in 2009, the house was used by 50 informal settlers.
• Casa Meycauayan (built in 1913 by the Escota family) was originally built in City of San Fernando in Pampanga. It was reconstructed in the 1950s in Meycauayan, Bulacan, where Rogelio Urrutia bought it.
• Casa Unisan (built 1839) is the Maxino house in Unisan, Quezon. The house is made of hardwood complete with trap doors. Only one girl survived the massacre on the family and that tragedy makes the house much talked about not only for its beauty. Its ground floor is now a Filipino restaurant called the Marivent Café.
• Casa Hidalgo (built in 1867) was the first campus of the University of the Philippines’ School of Fine Arts. (Its house owner Rafael Enriquez became its first director). Thence, it has housed the first school of architecture in the country, a bowling alley, a dormitory and flesh joint.
• Casa Biñan (Alberto House) is a replica of the house of Teodora Alonzo, the mother of the Filipino freedom fighter Dr. Jose Rizal. Acuzar used the original wooden door, stairs and a few planks when he recreated the house. He abandoned the planned donation of the house by its current owner, Gerardo Alberto, amid protests by heritage advocates and local officials.
• Casa Jaen I is the Don Hilarion Esquivel House built during the 1900s and won as the House Beautiful Award in 1917 by the Sunday Tribune.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Las Casas Filipinas de Açúzar.

1. Official website - Las Casas Filipinas
2. Official website - New San Jose Builders
3. Interviews and controversies - Jose Acuzar