Museo de Intramuros: Preserving vital pieces of Philippine history

There is, perhaps, no better place to open a museum dedicated to telling one side of the Filipinos' story than inside the walls of Old Manila. Located on Calle Arzobispo, in

what was once the San Ignacio Church, the Museo de Intramuros houses religious icons and artifacts collected from various churches in the Philippines.

In celebration of its 40th anniversary, the Intramuros Administration formally unveiled Museo de Intramuros last April 29 and opened it to the public last May 2.

The project was spearheaded by the Department of Tourism and the IA, led by founding administrator Dr. Jaime Laya and continued by succeeding administrators, with Dr. Esperanza B. Gatbonton, Gino Lopez Gonzales, Cecilia De La Paz, Santiago Pilar, and Martin Tinio Jr. as curatorial consultants.

In a speech during the launch, Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo Puyat lauded the IA and the museums curators in their efforts to preserve important pieces of Philippine history, pieces that capture the story of early Filipinos in the Spanish times. Although Museo de Intramuros features Christian art and icons that originally belonged to Spanish churches, these were made by Filipinos, explained Dr. Gatbonton.

“We were not merely passive spectators in our country's colonial past,” Dr. Gatbonton explained. “We were there. We responded. We participated.”

Scan the code and relive a bit of our colonial past inside Museo de Intramuros or turn to page D1 for the full story.