Description of the attraction
Cebu Cathedral Museum, opened in 2006, is located in downtown Cebu. It is an ecclesiastical museum dedicated to the history of the province's Roman Catholic diocese. Inside you can see exhibits related to the religious life of the city and the island, many of which have survived from the Spanish colonial period.
The museum is located next to the Cebu Cathedral and not far from the Basilica of Santo Niño. His collections are housed in a small building, which in itself has historical value - it was built in the early 19th century, when Santos Gomez Marañon was the bishop of Cebu. This, by the way, is one of the few buildings in the center of Cebu that has completely survived during the Second World War. Interestingly, Bishop Marañon also initiated the construction of churches in the cities of Oslob and Naga, the Bishop's Palace in Cebu opposite the museum, the bell tower in the city of Argao and the monastery in Sibong.
Initially, the building of the museum housed a monastery parish, then a faculty of the University of San Carlos, a cooperative store and even a chapel, while the Cathedral was closed for restoration. Today in the museum you can see a small chapel, which became an exhibition hall for the collection of the church parish of the town of Carmen - here you can see tabernacles (cabinets in the altar wall for storing objects of worship) and ancient arks with silver engraving. This chapel is also often used for special exhibitions.
Several galleries are located along the stairs leading to the upper floors. One features photographs and illustrations of how Catholicism spread across the island of Cebu. The other contains the personal belongings of Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, who once served as parish priest at Cebu Cathedral, including his prayer books, notebooks and a cardinal ring donated to Vidal by his predecessor Julio Rosales. In the third gallery, you can see how the churches were built during the Spanish colonization of the island. Another gallery houses a collection of statuettes of saints from various parishes under its vaults, including a statue of Saint Joseph on his deathbed. Finally, the fifth gallery is a sample of the priest's room.
Soon, it is planned to arrange a courtyard near the museum building, which will house a small coffee shop and a souvenir shop, and a garden will be laid out around it.
