The Ruins, Talisay City

I didn't know I live so close to a heritage site until a friend told me about the Ruins in Talisay City. It is a 903 square meter skeletal structure of what used to be a mansion standing proud amidst the sugar plantations.

From experiencenegros.com :

The Ruins showcases what is left of the Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson Ancestral Home in Talisay City, Negros Occidental. During its heyday, the mansion was the largest residential structure ever built. It boasted of its garden of lilies in and around the four-tiered fountain on the mansion’s front lawn and the finest furnitures, chinawares and decorative items that its owners brought from their travels across Europe and Asia.

The mansion dates back to the 1900s when it was built by the sugar baron, Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson for his first wife, Maria Braga, a Portuguese from Macau whom he met in his vacations in Hongkong. The mansion’s structure is of Italianate architecture enhanced by a belvedere complete with renaissance-type ballustrading typical of the homes of English ship captains. One of Don Mariano’s sons supervised the construction of the mansion making certain that the A-grade mixture of concrete and its pouring mixture was precisely followed. Thus perhaps, the marble-smooth finished walls’ sturdy response to the damage caused by fire when the mansion was torched during World War II by the USAFFE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East), then guerilla fighters in the Philippines, to prevent the Japanese Forces from utilizing it as their headquarters. The fire lasted for three days annihilating the mansion’s woodwork and bringing down its roof but the concrete structure was able to survive and persist.

Getting there is not really a problem these days. One can either take the access road beside the Honda Cars showroom in Talisay City or you can navigate your way through the residential streets of Octagon Village in Brgy. Bata.

The owners, Yves and Raymund Javellana, opened the place to the public last January offering a great venue for weddings, debuts and gatherings. There is a mini cafe which serves light snacks and drinks (for now, though they promise to bring more exciting stuff in their menu) for guests to enjoy while taking in the beauty of the place.

To know more about the Ruins (i.e. directional instructions, services offered) feel free to call 0917-8326003.

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