Description of the attraction
The Negros Museum, located in the town of Bacolod, is a must-see stop on your trip to the Philippine island of Negros. After all, it is here that you can touch the rich history of the island and its cultural heritage and see the works of local craftsmen. The museum's collections are divided into thematic expositions, exhibited in several galleries.
The first floor houses the Gallery of Folk Art and Folk Toys, which houses more than three thousand traditional toys collected not only on the island of Negros, but also in other parts of the world. This is the only collection of its kind in the Philippines. There is nothing surprising in the fact that this exhibition is especially popular with children. By the way, the Museum also has a Children's Library and a playground for children, where they can learn the basics of folk art - painting, modeling, pottery.
On the second floor, you can see the reconstruction of the "batil" - a wooden ship used to transport passengers and goods at the beginning of the 20th century. There are also samples of goods that were transported between Negros and the nearby islands during that era.
Among other interesting expositions of the museum are collections dedicated to the sugar industry, "Iron Dinosaurs" - old steam locomotives, 50 boats belonging to various tribes of the island, artifacts telling about the life of the Chinese community on Negros, etc. In one of the galleries, you can learn about the former governors of the island and what mark they left in the history of the province and Bacolod. A separate exhibition is dedicated to Nicholas Loney, who almost single-handedly created the sugar industry on Negros, which later became one of the main sources of income for the island.
The Negros Museum was created in the early 1980s, but it received its own building only in 1996. The museum building itself is also a historical landmark - it was built in the mid-1920s. The building was designed by Leandro Locsin, one of the greatest architects in the Philippines. Immediately after the completion of construction, it was recognized as a real masterpiece and decoration of Bakolod.
